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THE  LOEB  CLASSICAL  LIBRARY 

FOUNDEU    BY    JAMES    LOEB,    LL.D. 
EDITED    BY 

E.  H.  WARMINGTON,  m.a.,  f.r.hist.soc. 

PREVIOUS    EDITORS 
rT.  E.  PaJE,  C.H.,   LITT.D.  jE.  CAPPS,   ph.d.,  ll.d. 

rW.  H.  D.  ROUSE,  Lirr.D.  L.  A.  POST,  l.h.d. 


CICERO 

XIX 

DE  NATURA  DEORUM 
ACADExMICA 


268 


CICERO 

IN  TWENTY-EIGHT  VOLUMES 
XIX 

DE  NATURA  DEORUM 
ACADEMICA 

WITH  AN  ENGLISH  TRANSLATION  BY 

H.  RACKHAM,  M.A. 

UNIYERSITY  LECTURER,  AND  FELLOW  AND  LECTURER  OF 
CHRIST'S  COLLEGE,  CAMBRIDGE 


CAMBRIDGE,  MASSACHUSETTS 

HARVARD     UNIVERSITY    PRESS 

LONDON 

WILLIAM  HEINEMANN  LTD 

ilCMLXVII 


Firstprinled  1933 
Repnnted  1951,  1956,  1961. 

1967 

Fp 

Qf^ 

Du 

Printed  in  Great  Brilain 


COxXTENTS 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM  : 

IXTRODUCTIOX 

PAnK 

Subject  of  De  Nahira  Deorum    . 

.       vii 

Post-Aristotelian  philosophy     . 

.       vii 

Epicurean  theology  .         ,         .          .          . 

viii 

Stoic  theology  ...... 

viii 

Academic  scepticisni          .          .         .         . 

ix 

Cicero's  work  in  philosophy 

X 

Date  of  composition  of  De  Naiura  Deorun 

xii 

De  Natura  Deorum  unfinished    . 

xiii 

Summary  of  De  Natura  Deorum         .         « 

xiii 

Dramaiis  personae      .          .          .          .          . 

xiv 

Supposed  date  of  the  dialogue 

XV 

Sources  of  De  Natura  Deorum   . 

XV 

MSS.  of  De  Natura  Deorum 

xviii 

Editions 

.  xviii 

LlST    OF    ClCERO'3    WoHKS 

.    xxi 

BOOK    I 

2 

BOOK    II 

.    122 

BOOK    III 

.     286 

Fraqments 

.     384 

Index            

388 

CONTENTS 

ACADEMICA : 

Introductiox — 

PAOE 

Dates  of  composition  and  revision     , 

.    399 

Suh]  ect  of  Acadeynica 

.     400 

Dramatis  personae 

.     402 

Imaginary  date  of  the  dialoguc 

.     403 

Sources  of  Academica 

.     404 

MSS.  of  Academica 

.     405 

Editions 

.     405 

Dedicatory  Letter     . 

.     406 

BooK  I  

.     410 

BOOK  II           

.     464 

Index     ,        .        c        .        .        . 

.     660 

DE   NATURA   DEORUM 

INTRODUCTION 

SuBJECT. — In  De  Natura  Deorum  Cicero  put  before 
Roman  readers  the  theological  views  of  the  three 
schools  of  philosophy  that  were  of  chief  importance 
in  his  day  and  in  the  two  preceding  centuries,  the 
Epicurean,  the  Stoic,  and  the  Academic. 

Post-Aristotelian  Philosophy. — In  spite  of  the 
strong  antagonism  between  the  Epicureans  and  the 
Stoics,  their  doctrines  had  features  in  common  which 
indeed  characterized  all  the  thought  of  the  period. 
From  Aristotle  onward  Greek  philosophy  became 
systematic  ;  it  fell  into  three  recognized  departments, 
Logic,  Physics.and  Ethics,answering  the  three  funda- 
mental  questions  of  the  human  mind  :  (1)  How  do  I 
know  the  world  ?  (2)  What  is  the  nature  of  the  world  ? 
(3)  The  world  being  what  it  is,  how  am  I  to  live  in  it 
so  as  to  secure  happiness  ?  And  in  answer  to  these 
questions  the  Stoics  and  the  Epicureans  were  agreed 

(1)  that  the  senses  are  the  sole  source  of  knowledge, 

(2)  that  matter  is  the  sole  reahty,  and  (3)  that  happi- 
ness  depends  on  peace  of  mind,  undisturbed  by  pas- 
sions,  fears,and  desires.  But  the  ethical  systems  that 
they  based  on  these  first  principles  were  fundamen- 

vii. 


INTRODTJCTION  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 

tally  opposed  ;  for  Epiciirus  taught  that  peace  of  mind 
is  won  by  Uberating  the  will  from  nature's  law,  the 
Stoics  that  it  comes  by  submitting  to  it.  Moreover, 
though  both  were  materiahstic,  in  their  detailed 
systems  of  nature  they  differed  ^videly. 

Epicurean  Theology. — With  both  schools  aUke, 
Theology  fell  under  the  second  department  of  philo- 
sophy,  Physics.  But  wlth  Epicurus  it  was  only  an 
appendix  to  his  main  theory  of  nature.  This  he  based 
upon  the  atomism  of  Democritus,  holding  that  the 
real  universe  consists  in  innumerable  atoms  of  matter 
moving  by  the  force  of  gravity  through  an  infinity  of 
empty  space.  Our  world  and  all  its  contents,  and 
also  innumerable  other  worlds,  are  temporary  clusters 
of  atoms  fortuitously  collected  together  in  the  void  ; 
they  are  constantly  forming  and  constantly  dissolving, 
vvithout  plan  or  purpose.  There  are  gods,  because 
all  men  believe  in  them  and  some  men  have  seen  them, 
and  all  sensations  are  true,  and  so  are  all  beliefs  if 
uncontradicted  by  sensations.  The  gods  (like  every- 
thing  else)  consist  of  fortuitous  clusters  of  atoms,  and 
our  perceptions  of  them  (as  of  everything  else)  are 
caused  by  atomic  films  floating  off  from  the  surface  of 
their  forms  and  impinging  on  the  atoms  of  our  minds. 
But  it  is  impious  to  fancy  that  the  gods  are  burdened 
with  the  labour  of  upholding  or  guiding  the  universe  ; 
the  worlds  go  on  of  themselves,  by  purely  mechanical 
causation  ;  the  gods  hve  a  Hfe  of  undisturbed  bhss  in 
the  intermundia,  the  empty  regions  of  space  between 
the  worlds. 

Stoic  Theology. — The  Stoics,  on  the  contrary,  held 
that  the  universe  is  controlled  by  God,  and  in  the  last 
resort  is  God.  The  sole  ultimate  reahty  is  the  divine 
Mind,  which  expresses  itself  in  the  world-process. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 

But  only  matter  exists,  for  only  matter  can  act  and 
be  acted  upon  ;  mind  therefore  is  matter  in  its 
subtlest  form,  Fire  or  Breath  or  Aether.  The  primal 
fiery  Spirit  creates  out  of  itself  the  world  that  we 
know,  persists  in  it  as  its  hcat  or  soul  or  '  tension,'  is 
the  cause  of  all  movement  and  all  hfe,  and  ultimately 
by  a  universal  conflagration  will  reabsorb  the  world 
into  itself.  But  there  will  be  no  pause  :  at  once  the 
process  ^vill  begin  again,  unity  will  again  plurahze 
itself,  and  all  will  repeat  thc  same  course  as  before. 
Existence  goes  on  for  ever  in  endlessly  recurring 
cycles,  following  a  fixed  law  or  formula  (Aoyos)  ;  this 
law  is  Fate  or  Providence,  ordained  by  God  :  the 
Stoics  even  said  that  the  '  Logos  '  is  God.  And  the 
universe  is  perfectly  good  :  badness  is  only  apparent, 
evil  only  means  the  necessary  imperfection  of  the 
parts  viewed  separately  from  the  whole. 

The  Stoic  system  then  was  determinist  :  but  in  it 
nevertheless  they  found  room  for  freedom  of  the  will. 
Man's  acts  hke  all  other  occurrences  are  the  necessary 
effects  of  causes  ;  yet  man's  ^^ill  is  free,  for  it  rests 
with  him  either  willingly  to  obey  necessity,  the  divine 
ordinance,  or  to  submit  to  it  with  reluctance.  His 
happiness  hes  in  using  his  divine  intellect  to  under- 
stand  the  laws  of  the  world,  and  in  submitting  his 
will  thereto. 

ACADEMIC   SCEPTICISM   AND  THE   LaTER  ReACTION. 

The  Academic  position  in  Theology  was  not  dogmatic 
at  all,  but  purely  critical.  Within  a  century  of  Plato's 
death  his  school  had  been  completely  transformed 
by  Arcesilas,  its  head  in  the  middle  of  the  third 
century  b.c.  ;  he  imported  into  it  the  denial  of  the 
possibility  of  knowledge  that  had  been  set  up  as 
a  philosophical  system  by  the  Sceptic  Pyrrho  two 

ix 


INTRODUCTION  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 

generations  before.  Arcesilas  was  regarded  as  hav- 
ing  refounded  the  school,  which  was  now  called 
the  Second  or  New  Academy.  Arcesilas's  work  was 
carried  further  a  century  later  by  Carneades,  who 
employed  his  acute  logic  in  demoUshing  the  natural 
theology  of  the  Stoics.  The  next  head  but  one,  Philo, 
Cicero's  first  Academic  master,  set  on  foot  a  reaction 
to  a  more  dogmatic  position  ;  he  asserted  that  the 
Academy  had  not  really  changed  its  principles  since 
Plato,  and  that  his  predecessors,though  attacking  the 
*  criterion  '  of  the  Stoics,  had  not  meant  to  deny  all 
possibihty  of  knowledge  :  there  was  a  *  clearness  ' 
about  some  sense-impressions  that  carried  conviction 
of  their  truth.  Philo's  successor  Antiochus  went 
further  and  abandoned  scepticism  altogether ;  he 
maintained  that  the  Academy  had  lost  the  true  doctrine 
of  Plato,  and  he  professed  to  recover  it,  calhng  his 
school  the  '  Old  Academy.' 

CicERo's  WoRK  IN  Philosophy.  —  Ciccro  studied 
philosophy  in  his  youth  under  the  heads  of  all  the 
three  leading  schools,  for  Philo  of  the  Academy, 
Diodotus  the  Stoic,  and  Phaedrus  the  Epicurean  all 
came  to  Rome  to  escape  the  disturbances  of  the  Mith- 
ridatic  War.  He  gave  two  more  years  to  study  in 
his  maturity  ;  for  at  the  age  of  twenty-seven  he  with- 
drew  for  a  time  from  public  life,  spent  six  months  at 
Athens  studying  philosophy  under  the  Epicureans 
Phaedrus  and  Zeno,  and  the  Academic  Antiochus,  and 
then  passed  on  to  Rhodes  for  rhetoric.  There  he 
met  Posidonius,  who  was  now  the  leading  Stoic,  as 
Diodotus  had  stayed  in  Rome  as  a  guest  at  Cicero's 
house  and  resided  there  till  his  death.  When  Cicerc 
went  home  and  resumed  his  public  career,  he  still  con- 
tinued  his  studies  in  his  intervals  of  leisure,  as  appears 


INTRODUCTION  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 

from  many  passages  in  his  Letters.  And  when  under 
the  Triumvirate  hiscareerflagged,he  turnedmoreand 
more  to  letters.  After  his  return  from  exile  in  57  b.c. 
he  WTote  De  Oratore,  De  Republica,  and  De  Legibus  (his 
earhest  essay  in  rhetoric,  De  Inventione,  had  been 
written  before  he  was  twenty-five).  Ilhetoric  and 
poHtical  science  again  engaged  him  on  his  return  to 
Rome  after  reconciliation  with  Caesar  in  46  b.c.  ;  and 
early  in  45,  after  the  death  of  his  daughter  and  the 
final  do^\Tifall  of  Pompey's  party  at  Pharsalus,  he 
retired  to  a  country-house  and  gave  himself  entirely 
to  study  and  to  wTiting.  He  seems  to  have  conceived 
the  idea  of  doing  a  last  service  to  his  country  by 
making  the  treasures  of  Greek  thought  accessible  to 
Roman  readers.  His  intention  is  described  in  the 
preface  to  De  Finibus  (i.  1-13),  in  which  he  commends 
the  book  to  his  friend  Brutus  ;  no  doubt  it  was  pre- 
sented  to  Brutus  when  he  visited  Cicero  in  August 
{Ad  Att.  xiii.  44).  Cicero  went  on  ^vith  his  work 
through  the  following  year,  after  the  assassination  of 
Caesar  in  March,  till  in  the  autumn  he  flung  himself 
again  into  the  arena  by  attacking  Antony  with  the 
Philippics  ;  and  this  led  on  to  his  proscription  and  his 
death  in  December  43. 

Thus,  excepting  the  treatises  named  above,  the 
whole  of  Cicero's  important  work  in  the  region  of 
thought  was  accomplished  in  46-44  b.c,  within  the 
space  of  two  years. 

Cicero's  service  to  philosophy  must  not  be  under- 
rated.  In  wTiting  to  Atticus  (xii.  52)  he  himself  took 
a  modest  view  :  '  You  will  say  "  What  is  your  method 
in  compositions  of  this  kind  ?  "  They  are  mere  tran- 
scripts,  and  cost  comparatively  little  labour  ;  I  supply 
only  the  words,  of  which  I  have  a  copious  flow.'     But 

xi 


INTRODUCTION  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 

elsewhere  he  rates  his  work  rather  higher :  '  As  my 
habit  is,  I  shall  draw  from  the  fountains  of  the  Greeks 
at  my  own  judgement  and  discretion  '  {Off.  i.  6),  and 
*  I  do  not  merely  perform  the  office  of  a  translator. 
but  apply  my  own  judgement  and  my  o^vti  arrange- 
ment '  {Fin.  i.  6).  His  method  was  unambitious  :  he 
took  some  recent  handbook  of  one  or  other  of  the 
leading  schools  of  philosophy  and  reproduced  it  in 
Latin  ;  but  he  set  passages  of  continuous  exposition 
in  a  frame  of  dialogue,  and  he  added  illustrations  from 
Roman  histor}^  and  poetry.  His  object  was  to  popu- 
larize  among  his  fellow-countrymen  the  work  of  the 
great  masters  of  thought  ;  and  he  had  made  the 
masters'  thought  his  omti,  having  read  widely  and 
ha^ing  heard  the  chief  teachers  of  the  day.  But  to 
learning  and  enthusiasm  he  did  not  add  depth  of 
insight  or  scientific  precision.  Nevertheless  he  per- 
formed  a  notable  service  to  philosophy.  With  the 
Greek  schools  it  had  now  fallen  into  crabbed  techni- 
cahty  :  Cicero  raised  it  again  to  hterature,  so  com- 
mending  it  to  all  men  of  culture  ;  and  he  created  a 
Latin  philosophic  terminology  which  has  passed  into 
the  languages  of  modern  Europe. 

N.D.  :  Date  of  Composition. — In  the  preface  to 
De  Divinatione,  book  ii.,  Cicero  gives  an  account  of  his 
philosophical  authorship.  We  read  there  (§  3)  that 
he  finished  his  three  books  De  Natura  Deorum  after  he 
had  pubUshed  Tusculan  Disputations  ;  and  that  then, 
to  complete  his  treatment  of  the  subject,  he  began 
De  Divinatione,  intending  to  add  a  treatise  De  Fato. 
The  preface  quoted  was  \vTitten  soon  after  Caesar's 
deatfi,  but  the  work  itself  before  it  {id.  §  7),  as  was 
De  Natura  Deorum  (see  i.  4).  Cicero's  letter  to  Atticus 
dated  the  Ides  of  June  in  45  b.c.  {Att.  xiii.  8)  shows 
xii 


INTRODUCTION  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 

him  engaged  upon  the  whole  subject ;  he  requests 
Atticus  to  send  him  '  Brutus's  epitome  of  the  works 
of  Caehus,'  which  he  quotes  N.D.  ii.  8  and  several 
times  in  De  Divi?iatione,  and  '  Philoxenus's  copy  of 
Panaetius's  Uepl  Ilporotas,'  which  he  follows  at  Div. 
ii.  97  and  quotes  N.D.  ii.  118.  In  a  letter  to  Atticus 
a  Httle  later  (xiii.  8.  1)  occur  the  words  *  Before 
dawn,  as  I  was  writing  against  the  Epicureans  ' — 
a  reference  to  Cotta's  speech  in  N.D.  i.  ;  and  the 
next  day  he  ^^Tites  (^Att.  xiii.  39-  2)  '  I  am  very  busy 
writing  ;  send  me  .  .  .  ^i^aLSpov  Ilepl  Gewi/ ' — which  he 
unquestionably  required  for  N.D.  i.  He  was  there- 
fore  engaged  on  this  treatise  in  the  summer  of  45  b.c, 
while  at  the  same  time  occupied  on  the  Tusculans, 
which  he  published  first. 

N.D.  NOT  coMPLETELY  FiNiSHED. — ^Thcrc  is  no  evi- 
dence  that  he  ever  actually  pubhshed  N^.D.  ;  although 
he  speaks  of  it  as  '  finished '  {Div.  ii.  3)  it  clearly  lacks 
his  final  touches.  The  dialogue  as  it  stands  is  one 
continuous  conversation,  ending  at  nightfall  (iii.  94), 
but  traces  remain  suggesting  that  it  was  first  cast 
into  three  conversations  held  on  three  successive  days, 
each  book  containing  one  ;  see  ii.  73,  "  As  you  said 
yesterday  "  (^vith  note  ad  loc.) ;  iii.  2, "  I  hope  you  have 
come wellprepared  " ;  iii.  18,  "  AU  that  you  saidthe  day 
before  yesterday  to  prove  the  existence  of  the  gods." 

CoNTENTS  OF  N.D. — Dc  Natura  Deorum  opens  with 
a  preface  dedicating  the  work  to  Cicero's  friend 
Brutus.  Cicero  explains  how  philosophy  occupies  his 
retirement  from  pubhc  life  and  consoles  him  in  the 
bereavement  of  his  daughter's  death  ;  and  how  the 
undogmatic  style  of  the  Academic  school  of  thought, 
of  which  he  was  an  adherent,  was  especially  suited 
to  the  subject  of  theology.     The  scene  of  the  dialogue 


INTRODUCTION  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 

is  then  laid  and  the  characters  introduced.  The 
theology  of  Epicurus  is  taken  first.  It  is  expounded 
by  Velleius  (§§  18-56),  ^vho  precedes  his  exposition  by 
a  preUniinary  attack  on  the  theology  and  cosmogony 
of  Plato  and  the  Stoics,  and  a  refutation  (§§  25-41)  of 
the  theology  of  the  other  schools  from  Thales  do\vn- 
ward.  He  is  answered  (§§  57  to  end)  by  the  Academic 
Cotta,  who  demohshes  the  Epicurean  theology,  and 
pronounces  Epicureanism  to  be  really  fatal  to  rehgion 
(§115). 

In  Book  ii.  the  Stoic  theology  is  set  out  by  Balbus, 
who  proves  (1)  the  di\dne  existence  (§§  4-44),  and  ex- 
pounds  (2)  the  divine  nature  (§§  45-72),  (3)  the  provi- 
dential  government  of  the  world  (§§  73-153),  and  (4) 
the  care  of  providence  for  man  (§§  154  to  end).  Cotta 
again  rephes,  in  Book  iii.,  giving  the  Academic  criti- 
cism  of  the  Stoic  theology  under  the  same  four  heads : 
(1)  §§  7-19,  (2)  §§  20-64,  (3)  §  65  (the  rest  of  this  division 
is  lost),  (4)  §§  66  to  end. 

Dramatis  Personae. — Thus  although  as  it  stands 
the  dialogue  is  one  continuous  conversation  with  the 
same  persons  present  throughout,  it  falls  into  two 
separate  parts,  in  which  two  different  speakers  take 
the  lead  ;  but  the  rejoinder  in  both  cases  is  made  by 
Cotta.  Velleius  the  Epicurean  speaker  and  Balbus 
the  Stoic  are  only  known  to  us  from  this  book,  except 
that  De  Oratore  (iii.  78)  gives  Velleius  as  a  friend  of 
the  orator  L.  Licinius  Crassus,  and  mentions  '  duo 
Balbi '  among  the  Stoics  of  the  day.  Both  spokes- 
men,  and  also  Cotta  the  Academic,  are  spoken  of  here 
as  leaders  in  their  schools  (i.  16).  Cotta  had  already 
been  commended  to  Cicero  by  Atticus  {Att.  xiii.  19-  3), 
and  had  been  mentioned  by  Cicero  before  in  De  Ora- 
iore  (iii.  145)  as  having  joined  the  Academy  ;  Cicero 
xiv 


INTRODUCTION  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 

in  his  youth  had  listened  eagerly  to  his  oratory 
{Brutus,  305,  317)  ;  he  had  been  banished  in  90  b.c. 
under  the  Varian  law  {De  Or.  iii.  11),  had  returned  to 
Rome  82  b.c.  {Brut.  311),  and  became  consul  75  b.c. 
and  then  proconsul  of  Gaul,  but  died  before  his 
triumph.  Cicero  is  almost  a  Koxf^ov  TTpoaio-ov  ;  in  the 
Introduction  (i.  16  f.)  he  makes  a  comphmentary  reply 
to  Cotta's  greeting,  and  one  other  short  remark  when 
Velleius  says  that  as  another  pupil  of  Philo  he  will  be 
a  valuable  ally  for  Cotta.  Cotta  in  his  reply  to  the 
Epicurean  exposition  asks  leave  (ii.  104)  to  quote 
Cicero's  translation  of  the  astronomical  poem  of 
Aratus,  but  Cicero  gives  his  consent  by  silence.  At 
the  close  of  the  work  (iii.  95)  Cicero  ends  by  noting  the 
impression  that  the  debate  had  made  on  his  own  mind. 

SupposED  Date  of  the  Dialogue. — The  imaginary 
scene  of  the  dialogue  may  be  dated  in  77  or  76  b.c. 
In  a  list  of  political  murders  given  by  Cotta  (iii.  60) 
the  latest  is  that  of  Q.  Scaevola,  which  was  in  82  b.c. 
The  Stoic  professor  Posidonius  is  spoken  of  as  '  the 
friend  of  us  all'  (i.  123),  which  seems  to  put  the  scene 
after  78  b.c.  when  Cicero  heard  him  lecture  at  Rhodes 
(although  he  had  visited  Rome  on  an  embassy  from 
Rhodes  in  86  b.c.)  ;  but  there  is  no  reference  to 
Cotta's  consulship,  75  b.c.  The  date  suggested  fits 
in  with  the  reference  to  P.  Vatinius  as  '  adulescens ' 
(ii.  6)  ;  he  became  quaestor  in  QS  b.c.  when  Cicero 
was  consul. 

Sources  of  N.D. — It  is  of  interest  to  try  to  ascertain 
the  sources  from  which  Cicero  gets  his  materials  for 
the  treatise.  In  the  Epicurean's  review  of  the  earher 
Greek  philosophers  (i.  25-41)  there  are  references  to 
their  works,  and  later  there  are  allusions  to  Epicurus's 
writings  (§  43  Tiepl  KpiTrjpLov  rj  Kavwv,  '  a  heavenly 

XV 


INTRODUCTION  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 

volume,'  §  49,  and  §§  45  and  85  the  KvpLai,  Ao^ai). 
But  there  is  nothing  to  prove  that  Cicero  had  read 
these  first-hand  authorities ,  and  it  is  more  probable  that 
he  followed  his  usual  method  of  adapting  his  exposi- 
tion  of  each  division  of  his  treatise  from  a  single 
recent  writer.  For  the  exposition  of  Epicureanism 
which  forms  the  first  half  of  Book  i.  this  was  probably 
a  work  of  his  master,  Zeno.  This  conjecture  has  been 
supported  by  a  curious  accident.  Among  the  papyri 
discovered  at  Herculaneum  in  1752  is  a  mutilated 
Epicurean  treatise  (fully  pubhshed  in  a  volume  of 
Herculaneiisia  in  1862)  ;  there  is  reason  to  assign  this 
to  Zeno's  pupil,  Philodemus  ;  and  the  fragments  are 
enough  to  show  considerable  agreement  with  N.D.  i. 
The  Epicurean  argument  in  N.D.  i.  has  three  parts  : 
a  general  attack  on  the  Platonic  and  Stoic  cosmology, 
a  review  of  the  older  philosophers,  and  an  expositionof 
Epicurean  theology.  In  the  papyrus  the  first  part  is 
lostjbut  it  contains  the  two  latter  and  they  correspond 
very  closely  with  N.D.,  in  spite  of  some  differences  ; 
the  two  books  even  agree  in  quotations  from  Xeno- 
phanes,  Antisthenes,  Aristotle,  Chrysippus,  and  Dio- 
genes  of  Babylon  (N.D.  i.  §§  31,  32,  33,  41).  Mayor 
thinks  that  both  books  take  their  topics  and  argu- 
ments  from  Zeno,  the  teacher  of  both  authors,  and  as 
the  historical  review  in  both  stops  at  the  middle  of 
the  second  century  b.c,  Zeno's  work  may  well  have 
been  based  in  turn  on  one  by  his  predecessor  ApoUo- 
dorus. 

Coming  to  the  Academic  Cotta's  criticism  of  Epi- 
cureanism  in  the  second  half  of  Book  i.,  the  Stoic 
Posidonius  is  referred  to  (i.  123)  as  '  the  friend  of  us 
all,'  and  his  work  On  Nalure  is  quoted  as  authority 
for  part  of  the  argument,  and  may  be  the  source  of 
xvi 


INTRODUCTION  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 

the  whole  ;  there  are  Stoic  touches  throughout  (§  80 
the  jest  at  the  Academy,  §  95  the  divinity  of  the 
universe,  §  100  the  teleological  argument,  §  103 
beasts  born  in  fire,  §  110  virtue  as  an  active  prin- 
ciple,  §  115  the  definitions  of  piety  and  holiness, 
§  121  the  union  of  man  and  God).  But  the  Stoic 
origin  of  the  passage  is  disputed  by  some  authorities, 
and  it  has  indeed  an  Academic  colouring  :  it  may 
possibly  come,  like  Book  iii.,  from  Chtomachus,  the 
editor  of  Carneades,  though  Carneades  is  noMhere 
quoted  here  as  he  is  in  Book  iii. 

For  the  Stoic  system  in  Book  ii.  Cicero  probably 
follows  Posidonius.  He  was  unhke  most  of  his  school 
(1)  in  having  literary  tastes,  and  using  an  easy  style 
with  historical  illustrations,  (2)  in  being  interested  in 
science,  and  (3)  in  admiring  Plato  and  Aristotle  and 
adapting  Stoicism  to  suit  their  doctrines.  These 
features  are  seen  in  Cicero's  exposition  :  (1)  poetic 
quotations  occur  in  §§  4,  65,  89,  104-114,  159,  and  his- 
torical  illustrations  in  §§  6-1 1 ,  61 ,  69, 1 65  ;  (2)  §  88  refers 
to  the  orrery  of  Posidonius  and  to  astronomical  de- 
tails,  tides,  the  ether,  volcanoes,  climate,  human  diet, 
the  kinship  of  plant,  animal,  and  human  life  (an  Aris- 
totelian  touch,  confiicting  yrith  the  older  Stoicism), 
the  eternity  of  the  rational  soul  (which  ^\ith  the  early 
Stoics  perished  in  the  universal  Conflagration),  the 
origin  of  civilization  (a  rationahzation  of  the  myth  of 
the  Golden  Age) ;  (3)  Plato  is  '  the  god  of  philosophers  * 
§  32,  and  Aristotle  is  praised  §§  95,  125,  and  many 
details  are  borrowed  from  him. 

The  source  of  tlie  Academic  criticism  of  Stoic  theo- 
logy  which  occupies  Book  iii.  is  certainly  Hasdrubal 
of  Carthage,  better  knoN^Ti  under  his  Greek  name  of 
Clitomachus.     He  was  bom  c.  180  b.c.  and  went  to 

xvii 


INTRODUCTION  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 

Athens  about  the  age  o£  twenty-five,  becoming  the 
pupil  of  Carneades  and  sueceeding  him  as  head  of 
the  Academy.  He  left  voluminous  records  of  the 
doctrines  of  his  master,  who  left  none.  Carneades 
was  the  great  source  of  all  criticism  of  the  Stoics, 
especially  of  their  theology  :  he  '  was  fond  of  tilting 
at  the  Stoics,*  N.D.  ii.  162.  The  proof  of  the  mor- 
tahty  of  all  animal  hfe,  N.D.  iii.  29-34,  and  the  sorites, 
§§  43-52,  are  exphcitly  taken  from  Carneades. 

MSS. — There  are  many  mss.  of  Cicero  containing 
De  Natura  Deorum,  but  few  are  old  and  none  earher 
than  the  ninth  century.  All  go  back  to  one  arche- 
type,  as  is  proved  by  errors,  gaps,  and  transpositions 
common  to  all  ;  but  none  seems  to  have  been  copied 
directly  from  it,  and  there  appear  to  have  been  two 
hnes  of  tradition  from  it,  exemphfied  by  two  of 
the  oldest  mss.,  which  must  be  deemed  the  most  im- 
portant ;  both  belonged  to  Voss  and  are  at  Leyden — 
A  dating  at  the  end  of  the  ninth  or  beginning  of  the 
tenth  century,  and  B  a  httle  later.  They  have  many 
errors  and  some  considerable  gaps  in  common,  but 
differ  in  many  readings  and  transpositions.  The  other 
superior  mss.  all  group  with  A,  viz.  V  (the  Palatine,  at 
Vienna,  almost  of  the  same  date),  N  (Bibhotheque 
Nationale,  Paris,  twelfth  century,  descended  from  V), 
O  (Bodleian,  end  of  twelfth  century)  ;  and  so  do  all 
the  inferior  copies. 

The  present  edition  merely  notes  at  the  foot  of  the 
page  a  few  of  the  variants  of  A  and  B  and  of  the 
other  Mss.  (grouped  together  as  deteriores)  in  places 
where  the  true  reading  seems  doubtful. 

Editions. — For  a  full  view  of  our  evidence  for  the 
text  the  student  may  be  referred  to  the  editions  of 
Plasberg  (Leipzig,  ed.  majory  1911)  revision  announced 
xviii 


INTRODUCTION  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 

1930,  ed.  minor,  191'7').  The  foundation  of  modern 
texts  is  the  edition  of  OreUi  and  Baiter  (1861),  based 
on  five  mss.,  three  mentioned  above,  A,  B  (called  by 
Orelli  P)  and  V,  another  at  Leyden  (Heinsianus, 
twelfth  century),  and  one  at  Erlangen,  E.  The  in- 
valuable  edition  of  Joseph  Mayor  (Cambridge,  1880- 
1885)  also  employs  evidence  coUected  from  twelve 
other  Mss.  by  various  scholars,  and  the  texts  of  the 
four  editions  pubhshed  at  the  revival  of  learning,  at 
Venice  (a.d.  1508),  Paris  (1511),  Leipzig  (1520),  and 
Basel  (1534)  :  the  sources  of  these  texts  are  not  en- 
tirely  kno\\Ti  to  modern  scholars.  In  addition  to  his 
elaborate  critical  notes  Mayor  supplies  the  student 
with  an  exhaustive  accumulation  of  explanatory  and 
illustrative  commentary. 

H.  R. 
1930. 

See  also  the  edition  of  A.  S.  Pease,  Cambridge. 
Mass.,  1955,  1958. 


XIX 


LIST  OF  CICEROS  WORKS 

SHOWING  THEIR  DIVISION  INTO 

VOLUMES  IN  THIS 

EDITION 

VOLUME 

A.  Rhetorical  Treatises.     5  Volumes 
I.  [Cicero],  Rhetorica  ad  Herennium 

II.  De  Inventione 

De  Optimo  Genere  Oratorum 
Topica 

III.  De  Oratore,  Books  I-II 

IV.  De  Oratore,  Book  III 
De  Fato 

Paradoxa  Stoicorum 
De  Partitione  Oratoria 

V.  Brutus 
Orator 

B  xxi 


LIST  OF  CICERCS  WORKS 

VOLUME 

B.    OrATIONS.       10    VOLUMES 

VI.  Pro  Quinctio 

Pro  Roscio  Amerino 
Pro  Roscio  Comoedo 
De  Lege  Agraria  Contra  Rullum  I-III 

VII.  The  Verrine  Orations  I  : 
In  Q.  Caecilium 
In  C.  Verrem  Actio  I 
In  C.  Verrem  Actio  II,  Books  I-II 

VIII.  The  Verrine  Orations  II  : 

In  C.  Verrem  Actio  II,  Books  III-V 

IX.  De  Imperio  Cn.  Pompei  (Pro  Lege  Manilia) 
Pro  Caecina 
Pro  Cluentio 
Pro  Rabirio  Perduellionis  Reo 

X.  In  Catilinam  I-IV 
Pro  Murena 
Pro  Sulla 
Pro  Flacco 

XI.  Pro  Archia 

Post  Reditum  in  Senatu 
Post  Reditum  ad  Quirites 
xxii 


LIST  OF  CICERCS  WORKS 

VOLUME 

De  Domo  Sua 

De  Haruspicum  Responsis 

Pro  Cn.  Plancio 

XII.  Pro  Sestio 
In  Vatinium 

XIII.  ProCaelio 

De  Provinciis  Consularibus 
Pro  Balbo 

XIV.  Pro  Milone 
In  Pisonem 
Pro  Scauro 
Pro  Fonteio 

Pro  Rabirio  Postumo 

Pro  MarceUo 

Pro  Ligario 

Pro  Rege  Deiotaro 

XV.  PhiUppics  I-XIV 

C.  Philosophical  Treatises.     6  Volumes 

XVI.  De  Re  Publica 
De  Legibus 

XVII.  De  Finibus  Bonorum  et  Malorum 

xxiii 


LIST  OF  CICERO'S  WORKS 

VOLUME 

XVIII.  Tusculan  Disputations 

XIX.  De  Natura  Deorum 
Academica  I  and  II 

XX.  Cato  Maior  de  Senectute 
Laelius  de  Amicitia 
De  Divinatione 

XXI.  De  Officiis 


D.    LeTTERS.      7    VOLUMES 

XXII.  Letters  to  Atticus,  Books  I-VI 

XXIII.  Letters  to  Atticus,  Books  VILXI 

XXIV.  Letters  to  Atticus,  Books  XII-XVI 
XXV.  Letters  to  His  Friends,  Books  I-VI 

XXVI.  Letters  to  His  Friends,  Books  VII-XII 

XXVII.  Letters  to  His  Friends,  Books  XIII-XVI 

XXVIII.  Letters  to  His  Brother  Quintus 
Letters  to  Brutus 
Commentariolum  Petitionis 
Epistula  ad  Octavianum 


DE   NATURA   DEORUM 


M.  TULLII  CICERONIS 
DE  NATURA  DEORUM 

AD  M.  BRUTUM 
LIBER  PRIMUS 

1  I.  Cum  multae  res  in  philosophia  nequaquam 
satis  adhuc  exphcatae  sint,  tum  perdifficiUs,  Brute, 
quod  tu  minime  ignoras,  et  perobscura  quaestio  est 
de  natura  deorum,  quae  et  ad  cognitionem  animi 
pulcherrima  est  et  ad  moderandam  rehgionem  ne- 
cessaria.  De  qua  tam  variae  sunt  doctissimorum 
hominum  tamque  discrepantes  sententiae,  ut  magno 
argumento  esse  debeat  causam  et  principium  philo- 
sophiae  esse  inscientiam,  prudenterque  Academicos  a 
rebus  incertis  adsensionem  cohibuisse  :  quid  est  enim 
temeritate  turpius  ?  aut  quid  tam  temerarium 
tamque  indignum  sapientis  gravitate  atque  con- 
stantia  quam  aut  falsum  sentire  aut  quod  non  satis 
explorate    perceptum    sit    et    cognitum    sine    ulla 

2  dubitatione  defendere  ?  Velut  in  hac  quaestione 
plerique  (quod  maxime  veri  simile  est  et  quo  omnes 

•  Or  perhaps  *  which  is  both  of  extreme  scientific  interest.' 


MARCUS  TULLIUS  CICERO 
DE  NATURA  DEORUM 

BOOK  I 

1  I.  There  are  a  number  of  branches  of  philosophy  preface. 
that  have  not  as  yet  been  by  any  means  adequately  JpJ'n[on7as' 
explored  ;   but  the  inquiry  into  the  nature   of  the  tx»  the  gods. 
gods,  which  is  both  highly  interesting  in  relation  to 

the  theory  of  the  soul,°  and  fundamentally  important 
for  the  regulation  of  rehgion,  is  one  of  special  diffi- 
culty  and  obscurity,  as  you,  Brutus,  are  well  aware. 
The  multipHcity  and  variety  of  the  opinions  held 
upon  this  subject  by  eminent  scholars  are  bound  to 
constitute  a  strong  argument  for  the  view  that 
philosophy  has  its  origin  and  starting-point  in 
ignorance,  and  that  the  Academic  School  were  well- 
advised  in  "  withholding  assent  "  from  behefs  that 
are  uncertain :  for  what  is  more  unbecoming  than 
ill-considered  haste  ?  and  what  is  so  ill-considered 
or  so  unworthy  of  the  dignity  and  seriousness 
proper  to  a  philosopher  as  to  hold  an  opinion  that 
is  not  true,  or  to  maintain  with  unhesitating  certainty 
a  proposition  not  based  on  adequate  examination, 

2  comprehension    and   knowledge  ?     As    regards    the  Atheism. 
present  subject,  for  example,  most  thinkers  have 
affirmed  that  the  gods  exist,  and  this  is  the  most 

3 


CICERO 

duce  natura  venimus)  deos  esse  dixerunt,  dubitare 
se  Protagoras,  nullos  esse  omnino  Diagoras  Melius  et 
Theodorus  Cyrenaicus  putaverunt.  Qui  vero  deos 
esse  dixerunt,  tanta  sunt  in  varietate  et  dissensione 
ut  eorum  molestum  sit  enumerare  sententias.  Nam 
et  de  figuris  deorum  et  de  locis  atque  sedibus  et  de 
actione  vitae  multa  dicuntur,  deque  his  summa 
philosophorum  dissensione  certatur ;  quod  vero 
maxime  rem  causamque  continet,  utrum  nihil  agant, 
nihil  moUantur,  omni  curatione  et  administratione 
rerum  vacent,  an  contra  ab  iis  et  a  principio  omnia 
facta  et  constituta  sint  et  ad  infinitum  tempus 
regantur  atque  moveantur,  in  primis  magna  dissensio 
est,  eaque  nisi  diiudicatur  in  summo  errore  necesse 
est  homines  atque  in  maximarum  rerum  ignoratione 
3  versari.  II.  Sunt  enim  philosophi  et  fuerunt  qui 
omnino  nuUam  habere  censerent  rerum  humanarum 
procurationem  deos.  Quorum  si  vera  sententia  est, 
quae  potest  esse  pietas,  quae  sanctitas,  quae  rehgio  ? 
Haec  enim  omnia  pure  atque  caste  tribuenda  deorum 
numini  ita  sunt,  si  animadvertuntur  ab  iis  et  si  est 
ahquid  a  deis  inmortaUbus  hominum  generi  tributum. 
Sin  autem  dei  neque  possunt  nos  iuvare  nec  volunt, 
nec  omnino  curant  nec  quid  agamus  animadvertunt, 
nec  est  quod  ab  iis  ad  hominum  vitam  permanare 
4 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  i.— ii. 

probable  view  and  the  one  to  which  we  are  all  led  by 
nature's  guidance  ;  but  Protagoras  declared  himself 
uncertain,  and  Diagoras  of  Melos  and  Theodorus  of 
Cyrene  held  that  there  are  no  gods  at  all.  More- 
over,  the  upholders  of  the  di\1ne  existence  differ  and 
disagree  so  widely,  that  it  would  be  a  troublesome 
task  to  recount  their  opinions.  Many  views  are  put 
forward  about  the  outward  form  of  the  gods,  their 
dweUing-places  and  abodes,  and  mode  of  hfe,  and 
these  topics  are  debated  with  the  ^ddest  variety  of 
opinion  among  philosophers  ;  but  as  to  the  question 
upon  which  the  whole  issue  of  the  dispute  principally 
turns,  whetherthe  gods  are  entirely  idle  and  inactive, 
taking  no  part  at  all  in  the  direction  and  government 
of  the  world,  or  whether  on  the  contrary  all  things 
both  were  created  and  ordered  by  them  in  the  begin- 
ning  and  are  controlled  and  kept  in  motion  by  them 
throughout  etemity,  here  there  is  the  greatest  dis- 
agreement  of  all.  And  until  this  issue  is  decided, 
mankind  must  continue  to  labour  under  the  pro- 
foundest  uncertainty,  and  to  be  in  ignorance  about 
matters  of  the  highest  moment.  11.  For  there  are  Denialof 
and  have  been  philosophers  w^ho  hold  that  the  gods  providence. 
exercise  no  control  over  human  affairs  whatever. 
But  if  their  opinion  is  the  true  one,  how  can  piety, 
reverence  or  reUgion  exist  ?  For  all  these  are 
tributes  which  it  is  our  duty  to  render  in  purity  and 
hohness  to  the  divine  powers  solely  on  the  assump- 
tion  that  they  take  notice  of  them,  and  that  some 
service  has  been  rendered  by  the  immortal  gods  to  the 
race  of  men.  But  if  on  the  contrary  the  gods  have 
neither  the  power  nor  the  will  to  aid  us,  if  they  pay  no 
heed  to  us  at  all  and  take  no  notice  of  our  actions,  if 
they  can  exert  no  possible  influence  upon  the  Ufe  of 

5 


CICERO 

possit,  quid  est  quod  ullos  deis  inmortalibus  cultus 
honores  preces  adhibeamus  ?  In  specie  autem  fictae 
simulationis  sicut  rehquae  virtutes  item  pietas  inesse 
non  potest,  cum  qua  simul  sanctitatem  et  reUgionem 
toUi  necesse  est ;    quibus  sublatis  perturbatio  vitae 

4  sequitur  et  magna  confusio,^  atque  haud  scio  an 
pietate  adversus  deos  sublata  fides  etiam  et  societas 
generis  humani  et  una  excellentissima  virtus  iustitia 
tollatur. 

Sunt  autem  aUi  philosophi,  et  ii  quidem  magni 
atque  nobiles,  qui  deorum  mente  atque  ratione 
omnem  mundum  administrari  et  regi  censeant, 
neque  vero  id  solum,  sed  etiam  ab  isdem  hominum 
vitae  consuU  et  provideri  ;  nam  et  fruges  et  rehqua 
quae  terra  pariat,  et  tempestates  ac  temporum  varie- 
tates  caehque  mutationes  quibus  omnia  quae  terra 
gignat  maturata  pubescant,  a  dis  inmortaUbus  tribui 
generi  humano  putant,  multaque  (quae  dicentur  in 
his  Ubris)  coUigunt  quae  taUa  sunt  ut  ea  ipsa  dei 
inmortales  ad  usum  hominum  fabricati  paene  videan- 
tur.  Contra  quos  Carneades  ita  multa  disseruit  ut 
excitaret  homines  non  socordes  ad  veri  investigandi 

5  cupiditatem.  Res  enim  nuUa  est  de  qua  tantopere 
non  solum  indocti  sed  etiam  docti  dissentiant  ; 
quorum  opiniones  cum  tam  variae  sint  tamque  inter 
se    dissidentes,   alterum    fieri    profecto    potest    ut 

*  quibus  .  .  .  confusio  infra  post  toUatur  tr.  Wyttenhach, 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  ii. 

men,  what  ground  have  we  for  rendering  any  sort  of 
worship,  honour  or  prayer  to  the  immortal  gods  ? 
Piety  however,  hke  the  rest  of  the  virtues,  cannot 
exist  in  mere  outward  show  and  pretence  ;  and,  with 
piety,  reverence  and  rehgion  must  hkewise  disappear. 
And  when  these  are  gone,  hfe  soon  becomes  a  welter 

4  of  disorder  and  confusion  ;  and  in  all  probabihty  the 
disappearance  of  piety  towards  the  gods  will  entail 
the  disappearance  of  loyalty  and  social  union  among 
men  as  well,  and  of  justice  itself,  the  queen  of  all 
the  virtues. 

There  are  however  other  philosophers,  and  those  of  Beiief  in 
eminence  and  note,  who  beheve  that  the  whole  world  p^°^''^®°°* 
is  ruled  and  governed  by  divine  intelligence  and 
reason  ;  and  not  this  only,  but  also  that  the  gods' 
providence  watches  over  the  hfe  of  men  ;  for  they 
think  that  the  corn  and  other  fruits  of  the  earth, 
and  also  the  weather  and  the  seasons  and  the 
changes  of  the  atmosphere  by  which  all  the  products 
of  the  soil  are  ripened  and  matured,  are  the  gift 
of  the  immortal  gods  to  the  human  race  ;  and  they 
adduce  a  number  of  things,  which  will  be  recounted 
in  the  books  that  compose  the  present  treatise,  that 
are  of  such  a  nature  as  almost  to  appear  to  have  been 
expressly  constructed  by  the  immortal  gods  for  the  use 
of  man.  This  view  was  controverted  at  great  length 
by  Carneades,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  arouse  in 
persons  of  active  mind  a  keen  desire  to  discover  the 

6  truth,  There  is  in  fact  no  subject  upon  which  so 
much  difference  of  opinion  exists,  not  only  among 
the  unlearned  but  also  among  educated  men  ;  and 
the  views  entertained  are  so  various  and  so  discrepant, 
that,  while  it  is  no  doubt  a  possible  alternative  that 


CICERO 

eariun  nulla,  alterum  certe  non  potest  ut  plus  una 
vera  sit. 

III.  Qua  quidem  in  causa  et  benivolos  obiur- 
gatores  placare  et  invidos  vituperatores  confutare 
possumus,  ut  alteros  reprehendisse  paeniteat,  alteri 
didicisse  se  gaudeant  ;  nam  qui  admonent  amice 
docendi  sunt,  qui  inimice  insectantur  repellendi.^ 

6  Multum  autem  fluxisse  video  de  libris  nostris,  quos 
compluris  brevi  tempore  edidimus,  variumque  ser- 
monem  partim  admirantium  unde  hoc  philosophandi 
nobis  subito  studium  extitisset,  partim  quid  quaque 
de  re  certi  haberemus  scire  cupientium.  Multis 
etiam  sensi  mirabile  videri  eam  nobis  potissimum 
probatam  esse  philosophiam  quae  lucem  eriperet  et 
quasi  noctem  quandam  rebus  offunderet,  desertaeque 
disciphnae  et  iam  pridem  rehctae  patrocinium  nec- 
opinatum  a  nobis  esse  susceptum. 

Nos  autem  nec  subito  coepimus  philosophari  nec 
mediocrem  a  primo  tempore  aetatis  in  eo  studio 
operam  curamque  consumpsimus  et  cum  minime 
videbamur,  tum  maxime  philosophabamur,  quod  et 
orationes  declarant  refertae  philosophorum  senten- 
tiis  et  doctissimorum  hominum  famiharitates  quibus 
semper  domus  nostra  floruit,  et  principes  iUi  Diodotus 
Philo  Antiochus  Posidonius  a  quibus  instituti  sumus. 

7  Et  si  omnia  philosophiae  praecepta  referuntur  ad 
vitam,  arbitramur  nos  et  pubhcis  et  privatis  in  rebus 

^  qua  .  .  .  repellendi  infra  'post  susceptum  tr.  Mayor, 

a 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  ii.— iii. 

none  of  them  is  true,  it  is  certainly  impossible  that 
more  than  one  should  be  so. 

III.  Upon  this  issue  we  are  able  both  to  appease  Author'8 
kindly  critics  and  to  silence  malicious  fault-finders,  critics. 
causing  the  latter  to  repent  of  their  censure  and  the 
former  to  welcome  an  accession  to  their  knowledge. 
Friendly  remonstrance  must  be  met  by  explanation, 
hostile  attack  by  refutation. 

6  I  observe  however  that  a  great  deal  of  talk  has 
been  current  about  the  large  number  of  books  that 
I  have  produced  within  a  short  space  of  time,  and 
that  such  comment  has  not  been  all  of  one  kind  ; 
some  people  have  been  curious  as  to  the  cause  of  this 
sudden  outburst  of  philosophical  interest  on  my  part, 
while  others  have  been  eager  to  learn  what  positive 
opinions  I  hold  on  the  various  questions.  Many  also, 
as  I  have  noticed,  are  surprised  at  my  choosing  to 
espouse  a  philosophy  that  in  their  view  robs  the 
world  of  dayhght  and  floods  it  with  a  darkness  as  of 
night ;  and  they  wonder  at  my  coming  forward  so 
unexpectedly  as  the  champion  of  a  derelict  system 
and  one  that  has  long  been  given  up. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  however  I  am  no  new  convert  Phij?sophy 
to^the  study  of  philosophy.  From  my  earUest  youth  study.  "^ 
I  have  devoted  no  small  amount  of  time  and  energy  to 
it,  and  I  pursued  it  most  keenly  at  the  very  periods 
when  I  least  appeared  to  be  doing  so,  ^vitness  the 
philosophical  maxims  of  which  my  speeches  are  fuU, 
and  my  intimacy  with  the  learned  men  who  have 
always  graced  my  household,  as  well  as  those  eminent 
professors,  Diodotus,  Philo,  Antiochus  and  Posidonius, 

7  who  were  my  instructors.  Moreover,  if  it  be  true 
that  all  the  doctrines  of  philosophy  have  a  practical 
bearing,  I  may  claim  that  in  my  pubhc  and  private 

9 


CICERO 

ea  praestitisse  quae  ratio  et  doctrina  praescripserit. 
IV.  Sin  autem  quis  requirit  quae  causa  nos  inpulerit 
ut  haec  tam  sero  litteris  mandaremus,  nihil  est  quod 
expedire  tam  facile  possimus.  Nam  cum  otio  lan- 
gueremus  et  is  esset  rei  pubHcae  status  ut  eam 
unius  consiUo  atque  cura  gubernari  necesse  esset, 
primum  ipsius  rei  pubhcae  causa  philosophiam  nostris 
hominibus  expUcandam  putavi,  magni  existimans 
interesse  ad  decus  et  ad  laudem  civitatis  res  tam 
gravis  tamque  praeclaras  Latinis  etiam  htteris  con- 

8  tineri ;  eoque  me  minus  instituti  mei  paenitet  quod 
facile  sentio  quam  multorum  non  modo  discendi  sed 
etiam  scribendi  studia  commoverim.  Complures 
enim  Graecis  institutionibus  eruditi  ea  quae  didi- 
cerant  cum  civibus  suis  communicare  non  poterant, 
quod  illa  quae  a  Graecis  accepissent  I/atine  dici  posse 
diffiderent :  quo  in  genere  tantum  profecisse  videmur 
ut   a   Graecis   ne  verborum  quidem   copia  vincere- 

9  mur.  Hortata  etiam  est  ut  me  ad  haec  conferrem 
animi  aegritudo  fortunae  magna  et  gravi  commota 
iniuria  ;  cuius  si  maiorem  ahquam  levationem  reperire 
potuissem,  non  ad  hanc  potissimum  confugissem, 
ea  vero  ipsa  nulla  ratione  mehus  frui  potui  quam  si 
me  non  modo  ad  legendos  hbros  sed  etiam  ad  totam 

"  The  death  of  his  daughter  in  45  b.c. 
10 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  iii.— iv. 

conduct  alike  I  have  practised  the  precepts  tau^i^ht  PWiosophi 
by  reason  and  by  theory,  IV.  If  again  anyone  asks  an  occupa- 
what  motive  has  induced  me  so  late  in  the  dav  to  ^*°"  ^°^i,[^ 

,  i.         retirement, 

commit  these  precepts  to  writing,  there  is  nothmg  a  patnotic 
that  I  can  explain  more  easily.     I  was  languishing  consoiatioa 
in  idle  retirement,  and  the  state  of  pubhc  affairs  was  j»»  his 
such   that   an   autocratic   form   of  government  had  ment. 
become  inevitable.     In  these  circumstances,  in  the 
first  place  I  thought  that  to  expound  philosophy  to  my 
fellow-countrymen  was  actually  my  duty  in  the  in- 
terests  of  the  commonwealth,  since  in  my  judgement 
it  would  greatly  contribute  to  the  honour  and  glory 
of  the  state  to  have  thoughts  so  important  and  so 

8  lofty  enshrined  in  Latin  Uterature  also  ;  and  I  am 
the  less  inchned  to  repent  of  my  undertaking  because 
I  can  clearly  perceive  what  a  number  of  my  readers 
have  been  stimulated  not  only  to  study  but  to 
become  authors  themselves.  A  great  many  accom- 
phshed  students  of  Greek  learning  were  unable  to 
share  their  acquisitions  with  their  fellow-citizens, 
on  the  ground  that  they  doubted  the  possibiUty  of 
conveying  in  Latin  the  teachings  they  had  received 
from  the  Greeks.  In  the  matter  of  style  however  I 
beheve  that  we  have  made  such  progress  that  even 
in  richness  of  vocabulary  the  Greeks  do  not  surpass  us. 

9  Another  thing  that  urged  me  to  this  occupation  was 
the  dejection  of  spirit  occasioned  by  the  heavy  and 
crushing  blow**  that  had  been  dealt  me  by  fortune. 
Had  I  been  able  to  fmd  any  more  effective  rehef 
from  my  sorrow,  I  should  not  have  had  recourse  to  this 
particular  form  of  consolation  ;  but  the  best  way  open 
to  me  of  enjoying  even  this  consolation  to  the  fuU 
extent  was  to  devote  myself  not  only  to  reading 
books  but  also  to  composing  a  treatise  on  the  whole 

11 


CICERO 

philosophiam  pertractandam  dedissem.  Omnes  au- 
tem  eius  partes  atque  omnia  membra  tum  facillume 
noscuntur  cum  totae  quaestiones  scribendo  explican- 
tur ;  est  enim  admirabilis  quaedam  continuatio 
seriesque  rerum,  ut  alia  ex  alia  nexa  et  omnes  inter 
se  aptae  conUgataeque  videantur. 

10  V.  Qui  autem  requirunt  quid  quaque  de  re  ipsi 
sentiamus,  curiosius  id  faciunt  quam  necesse  est ; 
non  enim  tam  auctoritatis  in  disputando  quam 
rationis  momenta  quaerenda  sunt.  Quin  etiam  obest 
plerumque  iis  qui  discere  volunt  auctoritas  eorum 
qui  se  docere  profitentur ;  desinunt  enim  suum 
iudicium  adhibere,  id  habent  ratum  quod  ab  eo  quem 
probant  iudicatum  \ident.  Nec  vero  probare  soleo 
id  quod  de  Pythagoreis  accepimus,  quos  ferunt,  si 
quid  adfirmarent  in  disputando,  cum  ex  eis  quaere- 
retur  quare  ita  esset,  respondere  solitos  '  Ipse  dixit ' ; 
*  ipse  *  autem  erat  Pythagoras  :  tantum  opinio  prae- 
iudicata  poterat,  ut  etiam  sine  ratione  valeret 
auctoritas. 

11  Qui  autem  admirantur  nos  hanc  potissimum 
discipUnam  secutos,  iis  quattuor  Academicis  hbris 
satis  responsum  videtur.  Nec  vero  desertarum  re- 
hctarumque  rerum  patrocinium  suscepimus  ;  non 
enim  hominum  interitu  sententiae  quoque  occidunt, 
sed  lucem  auctoris  fortasse  desiderant ;    ut  haec  in 

•  AvToj  ^(p-n :  as  one  might  say  *  The  Master  said  so.* 
12 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  iv.— v. 

of  philosophy.  Now  the  readiest  mode  of  iniparting 
a  knowledge  of  the  subject  in  all  its  departments  and 
branches  is  to  wTite  an  exposition  of  the  various 
methods  in  their  entirety  ;  since  it  is  a  striking 
characteristic  of  philosophy  that  its  topics  all  hang 
together  and  form  a  consecutive  system  ;  one  is  seen 
to  be  linked  to  another,  and  all  to  be  mutually 
connected  and  attached.,, 

V.  Those  however  who  seek  to  learn  my  personal  Lack  of 
opinion  on  the  various  questions  show  an  unreasonable  juS^Yd!™ 
degree  of  curiosity.  In  discussion  it  is  not  so  much 
weight  of  authority  as  force  of  argument  that  should 
be  demanded.  Indeed  the  authority  of  those  who 
profess  to  teach  is  often  a  positive  hindrance  to  those 
who  desire  to  learn  ;  they  cease  to  employ  their  own 
judgement,  and  take  what  they  perceive  to  be  the 
verdict  of  their  chosen  master  as  setthng  the  question. 
In  fact  I  am  not  disposed  to  approve  the  practice  tra- 
ditionally  ascribed  to  the  Pythagoreans,  who,  when 
questioned  as  to  the  grounds  of  any  assertion  that 
they  advanced  in  debate,  are  said  to  have  been 
accustomed  to  reply  *  He  himself  said  so,'  °  *  he 
himself  being  Pythagoras.  So  potent  was  an 
opinion  aheady  decided,  making  authority  prevail 
unsupported  by  reason. 

To  those  again  who  are  surprised  at  my  choice  of  Academic 
a  system  to  which  to  give  my  allegiance,  I  think  that  a  ^rSbabUit^ 
sufficient  answer  has  been  given  in  the  four  books 
of  my  Academica.  Nor  is  it  the  case  that  I  have 
come  forward  as  the  champion  of  a  lost  cause  and  of 
a  position  now  abandoned.  When  men  die,  their  doc- 
trines  do  not  perish  with  them,  though  perhaps  they 
sufFer  from  the  loss  of  their  authoritative  exponent. 
Take  for  example  the  philosophical  method  referred 

13 


CICERO 

philosophia  ratio  contra  omnia  disserendi  nullamque 
rem  aperte  iudicandi  profecta  a  Socrate,  repetita  ab 
Arcesila,  confirmata  a  Carneade  usque  ad  nostram 
viguit  aetatem  ;  quam  nunc  prope  modum  orbam 
esse  in  ipsa  Graecia  intellego.  Quod  non  Academiae 
vitio  sed  tarditate  hominum  arbitror  contigisse  ;  nam 
si  singulas  discipUnas  percipere  magnum  est,  quanto 
maius  omnis  ?  quod  facere  iis  necesse  est  quibus 
propositum  est  veri  reperiendi  causa  et  contra  omnis 

12  philosophos  et  pro  omnibus  dicere.  Cuius  rei  tantae 
tamque  difficiUs  facultatem  consecutum  esse  me  non 
profiteor,  secutum  esse  prae  me  fero.  Nec  tamen 
fieri  potest  ut  qui  hac  ratione  philosophentur  ii  nihil 
habeant  quod  sequantur.  Dictum  est  omnino  de 
hac  re  aho  loco  dihgentius.  sed  quia  nimis  indociles 
quidam  tardique  sunt  admonendi  videntur  saepius. 
Non  enim  sumus  ii  quibus  nihil  verum  esse  videatur, 
sed  ii  qui  omnibus  veris  falsa  quaedam  adiuncta 
esse  dicamus  tanta  simiUtudine  ut  in  iis  nuUa  insit 
certa  iudicandi  et  adsentiendi  nota.  Ex  quo  exstitit 
iUudj  multa  esse  probabiUa,  quae  quamquam  non  per- 
ciperentur,  tamen,  quia  visum  quendam  haberent 
insignem  et  inlustrem  iis  sapientis  vita  regeretur. 

13  VI.  Sed  iam,  ut  omni  me  invidia  liberem,  ponam 
in  medio  sententias  philosophorum  de  natura  deorum. 

"  The  Stoics  on  the  contrary  held  that  true  sensations  are 
distinguished  from  false  ones  by  an  infallible  mark  {(xrj/xelov^ 
nota,  signum.)  and  command  our  instinctive  assent  to  their 
truth. 
14 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  v.— vi. 

to,  that  of  a  purely  negative  dialectic  which  refrains 
from  pronouncing  any  positive  judgement.  This, 
after  being  originated  by  Socrates,  revived  by 
Arcesilas,  and  reinforced  by  Carneades,  has  flourished 
right  down  to  our  own  period  ;  though  I  understand 
that  in  Greece  itself  it  is  now  almost  bereft  of  ad- 
herents.  But  this  I  ascribe  not  to  the  fault  of  the 
Academy  but  to  the  dullness  of  mankind.  If  it  is  a 
considerable  matter  to  understand  any  one  of  the 
systems  of  philosophy  singly,  how  much  harder  is  it  to 
master  them  all  !  Yet  this  is  the  task  that  confronts 
those  whose  principle  is  to  discover  the  truth  by  the 
method  of  arguing  both  for  and  against  all  the  schools. 

12  In  an  undertaking  so  extensive  and  so  arduous,  I  do 
not  profess  to  have  attained  success,  though  I  do 
claim  to  have  attempted  it.  At  the  same  time 
it  would  be  impossible  for  the  adherents  of  this 
method  to  dispense  altogether  with  any  standard  of 
guidance.  This  matter  it  is  true  I  have  discussed 
elsewhere  more  thoroughly  ;  but  some  people  are 
so  duU  and  slow  of  apprehension  that  they  appear 
to  require  repeated  explanations.  Our  position  is 
not  that  we  hold  that  nothing  is  true,  but  that  we 
assert  that  all  true  sensations  are  associated  ^vith 
false  ones  so  closely  resembhng  them  that  they 
contain  no  infalhble  mark  to  guide  our  judgement 
and  assent.'*  From  this  followed  the  corollary,  that 
many  sensations  are  probable,  that  is,  though  not 
amounting  to  a  full  perception  they  are  yet  possessed 
of  a  certain  distinctness  and  clearness,  and  so  can 
serve  to  direct  the  conduct  of  the  wise  man. 

.3      VI.  However,   to   free   myself  entirely   from   ill-  Undoematw 
disposed  criticism,  I  will  now  lay  before  my  readers  8pe!^iiy° 
the  doctrines  of  the  various  schools  on  the  nature  approp"**» 

15 


CICERO 

Quo  quidem  loco  convocandi  omnes   videntur  quj 

quae  sit  earum  vera  iudicent ;    tum  demum  mihi 

procax^    Academia    videbitur,   si    aut    consenserint 

omnes  aut  erit  inventus  aliquis  qui  quid  verum  sit 

invenerit.     Itaque  mihi  hbet  exclamare  ut  in'  Syne- 

phehts  : 

pro  deum,  popularium   omnium,    <6mnium>'  adulescen- 

tium 
clamo  postulo  obsecro  oro  ploro  atque  inploro  fidem 

non  levissuma  de  re,  ut  queritur  ille  '  in  civitate  '  fieri 

*  facinora  capitalia  ' — 

ab  amico  amante  argentum  accipere  meretrix  non  vult, 

14  sed  ut  adsint  cognoscant  animadvertant,  quid  de 
religione  pietate  sanctitate  caerimoniis  fide  iure 
iurando,  quid  de  templis  delubris  sacrificiisque  sollem- 
nibus,  quid  de  ipsis  auspiciis  quibus  nos  praesumus 
existimandum  sit  (haec  enim  omnia  ad  hanc  de  dis 
inmortalibus  quaestionem  referenda  sunt)  :  profecto 
eos  ipsos  qui  se  ahquid  certi  habere  arbitrantur 
addubitare  coget  doctissimorum  hominum  de  maxuma 
re  tanta  dissensio. 

16  Quod  cum  saepe  alias,  tum  maxime  animadverti 
cura  apud  C.  Cottam  famiUarem  meum  accurate  sane 
et  dihgenter  de  dis  inmortahbus  disputatum  est. 
Nam  cum  feriis  Latinis  ad  eum  ipsius  rogatu  arcessi- 

*  pervicax  Reid. 

'  ut  Statius  in  dett.  :  ut  est  in,  ut  ille  in  edd.^  sed  nescio 
an  personae  nomen  exciderit.  ^  add.  Manutius. 

*  A  play  of  Caecilius  Statius  translated  from  Menander. 

*  Cicero  was  elected  a  member  of  the  College  of  Augurs 
in  53  B.o. 

16 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  vi. 

of  the  gods.     This  is  a  topic  on  which  it  seems  proper  to  the 
to  summon  all  the  world  to  sit  in  judgement  and  thStreatfse 
pronounce  which  of  these  doctrines  is  the  true  one.  Theology. 
If  it  turn  out  that  all  the  schools  agree,  or  if  any 
one  philosopher  be  found  who  has  discovered  the 
truth,  then  but  not  before  I  will  convict  the  Academy 
of  captiousness.     This  being  so,  I  feel  disposed  to  ery, 
in  the  words  of  the  Young  Comrades  <* : 

0  ye  gods  and  O  ye  mortals,  townsmen,  gownsmen,  hear 

my  call; 

1  invoke,  implore,  adjure  ye,  bear  ye  witness  one  and  all — 

not  about  some  frivolous  trifle  such  as  that  of  which 
a  character  in  the  play  complains — 

.  .  .  here's  a  monstrous  crime  and  outrage  in  the  land  ; 
Here's  a  lady  who  decUnes  a  guinea  from  a  lover's  hand  ! 

14  but  to  attend  in  court,  try  the  case,  and  dehver  their 
verdict  as  to  what  opinions  we  are  to  hold  about 
reHgion,  piety  and  hoUness,  about  ritual,  abouthonour 
and  loyalty  to  oaths,  about  temples,  shrines  and 
solemn  sacrifices,  and  about  the  very  auspices  over 
which  I  myself  preside  ^  ;  for  all  of  these  matters 
ultimately  depend  upon  this  question  of  the  nature 
of  the  immortal  gods.  Surely  such  wide  diversity  of 
opinion  among  men  of  the  greatest  learning  on  a 
matter  of  the  highest  moment  must  affect  even  those 
who  think  that  they  possess  certain  knowledge  with  a 
feeUng  of  doubt. 

15  This  has  often  struck  me,  but  it  did  so  with  especial  introduc- 
force  on  one  occasion,  when  the  topic  of  the  immortal  dSogue.^* 
gods  was  made  the  subject  of  a  very  searching  and 
thorough  discussion  at  the  house  of  my  friend  Gaius 
Cotta.     It  was  the  Latin  Festival,  and  I  had  come 

at  Cotta*s  express  invitation  to  pay  him  a  visit.     I 

17 


CICERO 

tuque  venissem,  offendi  eum  sedentem  in  exedra  et 
cum  C.  Velleio  senatore  disputantem,  ad  quem  tum 
Epicurei  primas  ex  nostris  hominibus  deferebant. 
Aderat  etiam  Q.  Lucilius  Balbus,  qui  tantos  pro- 
gressus  habebat  in  Stoicis  ut  cum  excellentibus  in 
eo  genere  Graecis  compararetur. 

Tum  ut  me  Cotta  vidit,  "  Peropportune  "  inquit 
"  venis  ;  oritur  enim  mihi  magna  de  re  altercatio 
cum  Velleio,  cui  pro  tuo  studio  non  est  alienum  te 
interesse." 
16  VII.  "  Atqui  mihi  quoque  videor  "  inquam  "  ve- 
nisse  ut  dicis  opportune.  Tres  enim  trium  discipHna- 
rum  principes  convenistis.  M.  enim^  Piso  si  adesset, 
nulUus  philosophiae,  earum  quidem  quae  in  honore 
sunt,  vacaret  locus." 

Tum  Cotta  "  Si,"  inquit,  "  Hber  Antiochi  nostri, 
qui  ab  eo  nuper  ad  hunc  Balbum  missus  est,  vera 
loquitur,  nihil  est  quod  Pisonem  famiharem  tuum 
desideres  ;  Antiocho  enim  Stoici  cum  Peripateticis 
re  concinere  videntur,  verbis  discrepare  ;  quo  de 
Hbro,  Balbe,  veHm  scire  quid  sentias." 

"  Egone  ?  "  inquit  ille,  "  miror  Antiochum  homi- 
nem  in  primis  acutum  non  vidisse  interesse  plurimum 
inter  Stoicos,  qui  honesta  a  commodis  non  nomine  sed 
genere  toto  diiungerent,  et  Peripateticos,  qui  honesta 
commiscerent  cum  commodis,  ut  ea  inter  se  magni- 
tudine  et  quasi  gradibus,  non  genere  differrent. 
Haec  enim  est  non  verborum  parva  sed  rerum  per- 

*  etiam  Heindorf^  autem  Miiller. 
18 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  vi.— vii. 

found  him  sitting  in  an  alcove,  engaged  in  debate 
with  Gaius  Velleius,  a  Member  of  the  Senate, 
accounted  by  the  Epicureans  as  their  chief  Roman 
adherent  at  the  time.  With  them  was  Quintus 
LuciUus  Balbus,  who  was  so  accomplished  a  student 
of  Stoicism  as  to  rank  ^^ith  the  leading  Greek  ex- 
ponents  of  that  system. 

When  Cotta  saw  me,  he  greeted  me  with  the  words : 
*'  You  come  exactly  at  the  right  moment,  for  I  am 
just  engaging  in  a  dispute  with  \^elleius  on  an  im- 
portant  topic,  in  which  you  with  your  tastes  will  be 
interested  to  take  part." 
16  VII.  "  Well,  I  too,"  I  replied,  "  think  I  have  come 
at  the  right  moment,  as  you  say.  For  here  are  you, 
three  leaders  of  three  schools  of  philosophy,  met  in 
congress.  In  fact  we  only  want  Marcus  Piso  to  have 
every  considerable  school  represented." 

"  Oh,"  rejoined  Cotta,  "  if  what  is  said  in  the  book 
which  our  master  Antiochus  lately  dedicated  to  our 
good  Balbus  here  is  true,  you  have  no  need  to  regret 
the  absence  of  your  friend  Piso.  Antiochus  holds 
the  view  that  the  doctrines  of  the  Stoics,  though 
differing  in  form  of  expression,  agree  in  substance 
with  those  of  the  Peripatetics.  I  should  like  to 
know  your  opinion  of  the  book,  Balbus." 

"  My  opinion  ?  "  said  Balbus,  "  Why,  I  am  sur- 
prised  that  a  man  of  first-rate  intellect  like  Antiochus 
should  have  failed  to  see  what  a  gulf  divides  the 
Stoics,  who  distinguish  expediency  and  right  not  in 
name  only  but  in  essential  nature,  from  the  Peripa- 
tetics,  who  class  the  right  and  the  expedient  together, 
and  only  recognize  differences  of  quantity  or  degree, 
not  of  kind,  between  them.  This  is  not  a  slight 
verbal  discrepancy,  but  a  fundamental  difference  of 

19 


CICERO 

17  magna  dissensio.  Verum  hoc  alias ;  nunc  quod 
coepimus,  si  videtur." 

*'  Mihi  vero,"  inquit  Cotta,  **  videtur.  Sed  ut  hic 
qui  intervenit  **  me  intuens  **  ne  ignoret  quae  res 
agatur,  de  natura  agebamus  deorum,  quae  cum  mihi 
videretur  perobscura,  ut  semper  videri  solet,  Epicuri 
ex  Velleio  sciscitabar  sententiam.  Quam  ob  rem," 
inquit  "  Vellei,  nisi  molestum  est,  repete  quae  coe- 
peras." 

"  Repetam  vero,  quamquam  non  mihi  sed  tibi 
hic  venit  adiutor ;  ambo  enim  "  inquit  adridens, 
"  ab  eodem  Philone  nihil  scire  didicistis." 

Tum  ego  :  "  Quid  didicerimus  Cotta  viderit,  tu 
autem  nolo  me  existimes  adiutorem  huic  venisse 
sed  auditorem,  et  quidem  aequum,  Hbero  iudicio, 
nulla  eius  modi  adstrictum  necessitate  ut  mihi  vehm 
noHm  sit  certa  quaedam  tuenda  sententia." 

18  VIII.  Tum  Velleius  fidenter  sane,  ut  solent  isti, 
nihil  tam  verens  quam  ne  dubitare  ahqua  de  re 
videretur,  tamquam  modo  ex  deorum  conciho  et  ex 
Epicuri  intermundiis  descendisset,  "  Audite  "  inquit, 
**  non  futtihs  commenticiasque  sententias,  non  opi- 
ficem  aedificatoremque  mundi,  Platonis  de  Timaeo 
deum,  nec  anum  fatidicam  Stoicorum  irpovoLau, 
quam  Latine  hcet  providentiam  dicere,  neque  vero 

■  Epicurus   taught    that   gods    dwelt    in   empty   spaces 
between  the  material  worlds. 
20 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  vii.— viii. 

17  doctrine.  However  we  can  discuss  this  some  other 
time,  For  the  moment  we  will,  if  you  please,  con- 
tinue  the  topic  which  we  had  begun." 

"  Agreed,"  cried  Cotta  ;  "  but  to  let  the  new- 
coraer  know  what  is  the  subject  of  discussion  " — • 
here  he  glanced  at  me — "  I  ^vill  explain  that  we 
were  debating  the  nature  of  the  gods  :  a  question 
which  seemed  to  me,  as  it  always  does,  an  extremely 
obscure  one,  and  upon  which  I  was  therefore 
inquiring  of  Velleius  as  to  the  opinion  of  Epicurus. 
So  if  you  do  not  mind,  Velleius,"  he  continued, 
**  please  resume  the  exposition  that  you  had  begun." 

"  I  will  do  so,"  replied  Velleius,  **  although  it  is 
not  I  but  you  who  have  been  reinforced  by  an  ally — 
since  both  of  you,"  he  said,  with  a  smile  in  our 
direction,  "  are  disciples  of  Philo,  and  have  learned 
from  him  to  know  nothing." 

"  What  we  have  learned,"  I  rejoined,  "  shall  be 
Cotta's  affair  ;  but  pray  don't  think  I  have  come  to 
act  as  his  ally,  but  as  a  Hstener,  and  an  impartial  and 
unprejudiced  Ustener  too,  under  no  sort  of  bond  or 
obligation  willy  nilly  to  uphold  some  fixed  opinion." 

18  VIII.  Hereupon  Velleius  began,  in  the  confident  Theoiogy  of 
manner  (I   need   not  say)   that  is  customary  with  expounded 
Epicureans,  afraid  of  nothing  so  much  as  lest  he  should  ^y  Tl^lgl"^ 
appear  to  have  doubts  about  anything.     One  would 

have  supposed  he  had  just  come  down  from  the 
assembly  of  the  gods  in  the  intermundane  spaces  of 
Epicurus"!  "I  am  not  going  to  expound  to  you 
doctrines  that  are  mere  baseless  figments  of  the 
imagination,  such  as  the  artisan  deity  and  world- 
builder  of  Plato's  Timaeus,  or  that  old  hagof  a  fortune- 
teller,  the  Pronoia  (which  we  may  render '  Providence ') 
of  the  Stoics ;  nor  yet  a  world  endowed with  a  mind  and 

21 


CICERO 

mundum  ipsum  animo  et  sensibus  praeditum,  rotun- 
dum  ardentem  volubilem  deum,  portenta  et  miracula 
non  disserentium  philosophorum  sed  somniantium. 

19  Quibus  enim  ocuUs  animi^  intueri  potuit  vester  Plato 
fabricam  illam  tanti  operis,  qua  construi  a  deo  atque 
aedificari  mundum  facit  ?  quae  moHtio,  quae  ferra- 
menta,  qui  vectes,  quae  machinae,  qui  ministri  tanti 
muneris  fuerunt  ?  quem  ad  modum  autem  oboedire 
et  parere  voluntati  architecti  aer  ignis  aqua  terra 
potuerunt  ?  unde  vero  ortae  illae  quinque  formae  ex 
quibus  rehqua  formantur,  apte  cadentes  ad  animum 
afficiendum  pariendosque  sensus  ?  Longum  est  ad 
omnia,  quae  taUa  sunt  ut  optata  magis  quam  inventa 

20  videantur  ;  sed  illa  palmaria,^  quod  qui  non  modo 
natum  mundum  introduxerit  sed  etiam  manu  paene 
factum,  is  eum  dixerit  fore  sempiternum.  Hunc 
censes  primis  ut  dicitur  labris  gustasse  physiologiam, 
id  est  naturae  rationem,  qui  quicquam  quod  ortum 
sit  putet  aeternum  esse  posse  ?  Quae  est  enim 
coagmentatio  non  dissolubihs  ?  aut  quid  est  cui 
principium  aliquod  sit,  nihil  sit  extremum  ?  Pronoea 
vero  si  vestra  est,  Lucih,  eadem,'  requiro  quae 
paulo  ante,  ministros  machinas  omnem  totius  operis 
dissignationem  atque  apparatum  ;  sin  aha  est,  cur 
mortalem  fecerit  mundum,   non   quem   ad  modum 

21  Platonicus  deus  sempiternum.     IX.  Ab  utroque  au- 

^  animi  om.  ed.  Veneta. 

2  palmaria  Davies  :   palmaris. 

'  eadem,  <eadem>  Heindor/. 

*  Pyramid,  cube,  octohedron,  dodecahedron,  eicosihedron ; 
the  shapes  respectively  of  the  particles  of  fire,  earth,  air, 
aether,  water. 

22 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  viii.— ix. 

senses  of  its  own,  a  spherical,  rotatory  god  of  burning 
fire  ;    these   are   the   marvels   and   monstrosities   of 

19  philosophers  who  do  not  reason  but  dream.     What 
power  of  mental  vision  enabled  your  master  Plato  piatonic 
to  descry  the  vast  and  elaborate  architectural  process  t^^eof^J^e^ 
which,  as  he  makes  out,  the  deity  adopted  in  building  and 

the  structure  of  the  universe  ?  What  method  of  rSuielf 
engineering  was  employed  ?  VVhat  tools  and  levers 
and  derricks  ?  What  agents  carried  out  so  vast  an 
undertaking  ?  And  how  were  air,  fire,  water  and 
earth  enabled  to  obey  and  execute  the  will  of  the 
architect  ?  How  did  the  five  regular  solids,<*  which 
are  the  basis  of  all  other  forms  of  matter,  come  into 
existence  so  nicely  adapted  to  make  impressions  on 
our  minds  and  produce  sensations  ?  It  would  be  a 
lengthy  task  to  advert  upon  every  detail  of  a  system 
that  is  such  as  to  seem  the  result  of  idie  theorizing 

20  rather  than  of  real  research  ;  but  the  prize  example 
is  that  the  thinker  who  represented  the  world  not 
merely  as  having  had  an  origin  but  even  as  almost 
made  by  hand,  also  declared  that  it  will  exist  for 
ever.  Can  you  suppose  that  a  man  can  have  even 
dipped  into  natural  philosophy  if  he  imagines  that 
anything  that  has  come  into  being  can  be  eternal  ? 
What  composite  whole  is  not  capable  of  dissolution  ? 
What  thing  is  there  that  has  a  beginning  but  not  an 
end  ?  While  as  for  your  Stoic  Providence,  Lucilius, 
if  it  is  the  same  thing  as  Plato's  creator,  I  repeat  my 
previous  questions,  what  were  its  agents  and  instru- 
ments,  and  how  was  the  entire  undertaking  planned 
out  and  carried  through  ?  If  on  the  contrary  it  is 
something  different,  I  ask  why  it  made  the  world 
mortal,   and   not   everlasting   as   did   Plato's  divine 

21  creator  f     IX.  Moreover  I  would  put  to  both  of  you 

23 


CICERO 

tem  sciscitor  cur  mundi  aedificatores  repente  ex- 
stiterint,  innumerabilia  saecla  dormierint ;  non  enim, 
si  mundus  nullus  erat,  saecla  non  erant  (saecla  nunc 
dico  non  ea  quae  dierum  noctiumque  numero  annuis 
cursibus  conficiuntur,  nam  fateor  ea  sine  mundi 
conversione  effici  non  potuisse  ;  sed  fuit  quaedam  ab 
infinito  tempore  aeternitas,  quam  nulla  circum- 
scriptio  temporum  metiebatur,  spatio  tamen  qualis 
ea  fuerit  intellegi  potest,^  quod  ne  in  cogitationem 
quidem  cadit  ut  fuerit  tempus  aliquod  nullum  cum 

22  tempus  esset) — isto  igitur  tam  inmenso  spatio  quaero, 
Balbe,  cur  Pronoea  vestra  cessaverit.  Laboremne 
fugiebat  ?  At  iste  nec  attingit  deum  nec  erat  uUus, 
cum  omnes  naturae  numini  divino,  caelum  ignes 
terrae  maria,  parerent.  Quid  autem  erat  quod  con- 
cupisceret  deus  mundum  signis  et  luminibus  tam- 
quam  aedilis  ornare  ?  Si  ut  [deus]^  ipse  melius 
habitaret,  antea  videlicet  tempore  infinito  in  tenebris 
tamquam  in  gurgustio  habitaverat ;  post  autem 
varietatene  eum  delectari  putamus  qua  caelum  et 
terras  exornatas  videmus  ?  Quae  ista  potest  esse 
oblectatio  deo  ?   quae  si  esset,  non  ea  tam  diu  carere 

23  potuisset.  An  haec,  ut  fere  dicitis,  hominum  causa 
a  deo  constituta  sunt  ?  Sapientiumne  ?  Propter 
paucos  igitur  tanta  est  facta  rerum  moUtio.  An 
stultorum  ?  At  primum  causa  non  fuit  cur  de  in- 
probis  bene  mereretur ;   deinde  quid  est  adsecutus  ? 

^  intellegi  non  potest  dett. 
2  secl.  Ernesti. 

"  There  is  a  play  on  words  in  signis  et  luminihust  which 
denote  both  the  constellations  and  luminaries  of  the  sky 
and  the  statues  and  illuminations  with  which  the  aedileg 
adorned  the  city  for  festivals. 
24 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  ix. 

the  question,  why  did  these  deities  suddenly  awake 
into  activity  as  world-builders  after  countless  ages  of 
slumber  ?  for  though  the  world  did  not  exist,  it  does 
not  follow  that  ages  did  not  exist — meaning  by  ages, 
not  periods  made  up  of  a  number  of  days  and  nights 
in  annual  courses,  for  ages  in  this  sense  I  admit  could 
not  have  been  produced  without  the  circular  motion  of 
the  firmament ;  but  from  the  infinite  past  there  has 
existed  an  eternity  not  measured  by  limited  divisions 
of  time,  but  of  a  nature  intelHgible  in  terms  of  exten- 
sion  ;   since  it  is  inconceivable  that  there  was  ever  a 

22  time  when  time  did  not  exist.  Well  then,  Balbus, 
what  I  ask  is,  why  did  your  Providence  remain  idle  all 
through  that  extent  of  time  of  which  you  speak  ? 
Was  it  in  order  to  avoid  fatigue  ?  But  god  cannot 
know  fatigue  ;  and  also  there  was  no  fatigue  in 
question,  since  all  the  elements,  sky,  fire,  earth  and 
sea,  were  obedient  to  the  divine  will.  Also,  why 
should  god  take  a  fancy  to  decorate  the  firmament 
with  figures  and  illuminations,'^  Hke  an  aedile  ? 
If  it  was  to  embelHsh  his  own  abode,  then  it  seems 
that  he  had  previously  been  dwelHng  for  an  infinite 
time  in  a  dark  and  gloomy  hovel  !  And  are  we  to 
suppose  that  thenceforward  the  varied  beauties  which 
we  see  adorning  earth  and  sky  have  afforded  him 
pleasure  ?  How  can  a  god  take  pleasure  in  things 
of  this  sort  ?     And  if  he  did,  he  could  not  have  dis- 

23  pensed  with  it  so  long.  Or  were  these  beauties 
designed  for  the  sake  of  men,  as  your  school  usually 
maintains  ?  For  the  sake  of  wise  men  ?  If  so,  all 
this  vast  effort  of  construction  took  place  on  account 
of  a  handful  of  people.  For  the  sake  of  fools  then  ? 
But  in  the  first  place  there  was  no  reason  for  god  to 
do  a  service  to  the  wicked  ;  and  secondly,  what  good 

25 


CICERO 

cum  omnes  stulti  sint  sine  dubio  miserrimi,  maxime 
quod  stulti  sunt(miserius  enim  stultitia  quid  possumus 
dicere  ?),  deinde  quod  ita  multa  sunt  incommoda  in 
vita  ut  ea  sapientes  commodorum  conpensatione 
leniant,  stulti  nec  vitare  venientia  possint  nec  ferre 
praesentia  ?  X.  Qui  vero  mundum  ipsum  animan- 
tem  sapientemque  esse  dixerunt,  nullo  modo  vide- 
runt  animi  natura  intellegentis  in  quam  figuram 
cadere  posset.  De  quo  dicam  equidem  paulo  post, 
24  nunc  autem  hactenus  :  admirabor  eorum  tarditatem 
qui  animantem  inmortalem  et  eundem  beatum  ro- 
tundum  esse  velint  quod  ea  forma  neget  uUam  esse 
pulchriorem  Plato  ;  at  mihi  vel  cyUndri  vel  quadrati 
vel  coni  vel  pyramidis  videtur  esse  formosior.  Quae 
vero  vita  tribuitur  isti  rotundo  deo  ?  Nempe  ut  ea 
celeritate  contorqueatur  cui  par  nulla  ne  cogitari 
quidem  possit ;  in  qua  non  video  ubinam  mens 
constans  et  vita  beata  possit  insistere.  Quodque  in 
nostro  corpore  si  minima  ex  parte  t  significetur* 
molestum  sit,  cur  hoc  idem  non  habeatur  molestum 
in  deo  ?  Terra  enim  profecto,  quoniam  mundi  pars 
est,  pars  est  etiam  dei ;  atqui  terrae  maxumas 
regiones  inhabitabiUs  atque  incultas  videmus,  quod 
pars  earum  adpulsu  sohs  exarserit,  pars  obriguerit 
nive  pruinaque  longinquo  sohs  abscessu  ;  quae,  si 
mundus  est  deus,  quoniam  mundi  partes  sunt,  dei 

*  sic  afficiatur  Schomann  i  <frigore  aut  solis  igni>  uexetur 
Goethg, 

26 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  ix.— x. 

did  he  do  ?  inasmuch  as  all  fools  are  beyond  question 
extremely  miserable,  precisely  because  they  are  fools 
(for  what  can  be  mentioned  more  miserable  than 
folly  ?),  and  in  the  second  place  because  there  are  so 
many  troubles  in  hfe  that,  though  wise  men  can 
assuage  them  by  balancing  against  them  Hfe's 
advantages,  fools  can  neither  avoid  their  approach 
nor  endure  their  presence.  X.  Those  on  the 
other  hand  who  said  that  the  world  is  itself  en- 
dowed  with  hfe  and  with  wisdom,  failed  entirely  to 
discern  what  shape  the  nature  of  an  inteUigent 
hving  being  could  conceivably  possess.  I  will  touch 
24  on  this  a  Uttle  later  ;  for  the  present  I  wiU  confine 
myself  to  expressing  my  surprise  at  their  stupidity 
in  holding  that  a  being  who  is  immortal  and 
also  blessed  is  of  a  spherical  shape,  merely  on  the 
ground  that  Plato  pronounces  a  sphere  to  be  the  most 
beautiful  of  aU  figures.  For  my  own  part,  on  the 
score  of  appearance  I  prefer  either  a  cyUnder  or  acube 
or  a  cone  or  a  pyramid.  Then,  what  mode  of  exist- 
ence  is  assigned  to  their  spherical  deity  ?  Why,  he 
is  in  a  state  of  rotation,  spinning  round  with  a 
velocity  that  surpasses  aU  powers  of  conception.  But 
what  room  there  can  be  in  such  an  existence  for 
steadfastness  of  mind  and  for  happiness,  I  cannot  see. 
Also,  why  should  a  condition  that  is  painful  in  the 
human  body,  if  even  the  smaUest  part  of  it  is  affected, 
be  supposed  to  be  painless  in  the  deity  ?  Now 
clearly  the  earth,  being  a  part  of  the  world,  is  also  a 
part  of  god.  Yet  we  see  that  vast  portions  of  the 
earth's  surface  are  uninhabitable  deserts,  being 
either  scorched  by  the  sun's  proximity,  or  frost-bound 
and  covered  ^Wth  snow  owing  to  its  extreme  remote- 
ness.     But  if  the  world  is  god,  these,  being  parts  of  the 

27 


CICERO 

membra  partim  ardentia  partim  refrigerata  dicenda 
sunt. 

25  "  Atque  haec  quidem  vestra,  Lucili ;  qualia  vero 
*  *  est,^  ab  ultimo  repetam  superiorum.  Thales  enim 
Milesius,  qui  primus  de  taUbus  rebus  quaesivit, 
aquam  dixit  esse  initium  rerum,  deum  eam  mentem 
quae  ex  aqua  cuncta  fingeret — si'  di  possunt  esse 
sine  sensu  ;  et  mentem^  cur  aquae  adiunxit,  si  ipsa 
mens  constare  potest  vacans  corpore  ?  Anaximandri 
autem  opinio  est  nativos  esse  deos  longis  intervalHs 
orientis  occidentisque,  eosque  innumerabilis  esse 
mundos.     Sed  nos  deum  nisi  sempiternum  intellegere 

26  qui  possumus  ?  Post  Anaximenes  aera  deum  statuit, 
eumque  gigni  esseque  inmensum  et  infinitum  et 
semper  in  motu  :  quasi  aut  aer  sine  ulla  forma  deus 
esse  possit,  cum  praesertim  deum  non  modo  aliqua 
sed  pulcherrima  specie  deceat  esse,  aut  non  omne 
quod  ortum  sit  mortahtas  consequatur.  XI.  Inde 
Anaxagoras,  qui  accepit  ab  Anaximene  discipUnam, 
primus  omnium  rerum  discriptionem  et  modum  men- 
tis  infinitae  vi  ac  ratione  dissignari  et  confici  voluit ; 
in  quo  non  vidit  neque  motum  sensui  iunctum  et 
continentem  in  infinito*  ullum  esse  posse,  neque 
sensum  omnino  quo  non  ipsa  natura  pulsa  sentiret. 
Deinde  si  mentem  istam  quasi  animal  ahquod  voluit 
esse,  erit  aHquid  interius  ex  quo  illud  animal  nomine- 

*  quaUa  uero  aha  sint  B  corr.  •    sed  veri  simile  est  aliqua 
verha  excidisse.  *  si  det.y  sic  A^  B. 

^  mentem  B,  mente  cett. ;  post  mente  lacunam  edd, 

*  incontinentem  infinito  A^  B, 
£8 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  x.— xi. 

world,  must  be  regarded  as  limbs  of  god,  undergoing 
the  extremes  of  heat  and  cold  respectively. 

25  "  So   much,   LuciHus,   for   the   doctrines   of  your  Theoiogy  of 
school.     To  show  what  <the  older  systems>  are  Hke,  schoois 

I  will  trace  their  history  from  the  remotest  of  your  flp^ 
predccessors.     Thales  of  Miletus,  who  was  the  iirst  downward 
person  to  investigate  these  matters,  said  that  water  refuted. 
was  the  first  principle  of  things,  but  that  god  was 
the  mind  that  moulded  all  things  out  of  water — 
supposing  that  gods   can   exist  without  sensation  ; 
and  why  did  he  make  mind  an  adjunct  of  water,  if 
mind  can  exist  by  itself,  devoid  of  body  }     The  view 
of  Anaximander  is  that  the  gods  are  not  everlasting 
but  are  born  and  perish  at  long  intervals  of  time, 
and  that  they  are  worlds,  countless  in  number.     But 
how  can  we  conceive  of  god  save  as  Uving  for  ever  ? 

26  Next,  Anaximenes  held  that  air  is  god,  and  that  it  has 
a  beginning  in  time,  and  is  immeasurable  and  infinite 
in  extent,  and  is  always  in  motion  ;  just  as  if  fonnless 
air  could  be  god,  especially  seeing  that  it  is  proper  to 
god  to  possess  not  merely  some  shape  but  the  most 
beautiful  shape  ;  or  as  if  anything  that  has  had  a 
beginning  must  not  necessarily  be  mortal.  XI.  Then 
there  is  Anaxagoras,  the  successor  of  Anaximenes  ; 
he  was  the  first  thinker  to  hold  that  the  orderly  dis- 
position  of  the  universe  is  designed  and  perfected  by 
the  rational  power  of  an  infinite  mind.  But  in  saying 
this  he  failed  to  see  that  there  can  be  no  such  thing 
as  sentient  and  continuous  activity  in  that  which  is 
infinite,  and  that  sensation  in  general  can  only  occur 
when  the  subject  itself  becomes  sentient  by  the 
impact  of  a  sensation.  Further,  if  he  intended  his 
infinite  mind  to  be  a  definite  Uving  creature,  it  must 
have  some  inner  principle  of  Ufe  to  justify  the  name. 

0  29 


CICERO 

tur  ;    quid  autem  interius  mente  ?    cingetur^  igitur 

27  corpore  externo  ;  quod  quoniam  non  placet,  aperta 
simplexque  mens,  nulla  re  adiuncta  qua^  sentire 
possit,  fugere  intellegentiae  nostrae  \dm  et  notionem 
videtur.  Crotoniates  autem  Alcmaeo,  qui  soli  et 
lunae  reliquisque  sideribus  animoque  praeterea  divini- 
tatem  dedit,  non  sensit  sese  mortalibus  rebus  in- 
mortalitatem  dare.  Nam  Pythagoras,  qui  censuit 
animum  esse  per  naturam  rerum  omnem  intentum  et 
commeantem  ex  quo  nostri  animi  carperentur,  non 
vidit  distractione  humanorum  animorum  discerpi  et 
lacerari  deum,  et  cum  miseri  animi  essent,  quod 
plerisque  contingeret,  tum  dei  partem  esse  miseram, 

28  quod  fieri  non  potest.  Cur  autem  quicquam  ignoraret 
animus  hominis,  si  esset  deus  ?  quo  modo  porro  deus 
iste,  si  nihil  esset  nisi  animus,  aut  infixus  aut  infusus 
esset  in  mundo  ?  Tum  Xenophanes,  qui  mente 
adiuncta  omne  propterea^  quod  esset  infinitum  deum 
voluit  esse,de  ipsa  mente  itemreprehenditurut  ceteri, 
de  infinitate  autem  vehementius,  in  qua  nihil  neque 
sentiensneque coniunctumpotestesse.  NamParmeni- 
des  quidem  commenticium  quiddam*  coronae  simile 
efficit  ((TT€(j)di'r]v  appellat),  continentem  ardorum^  lucis 
orbem  qui  cingit®  caelum,  quem  appellat  deum ;  in 
quo  neque  figuram  divinam  neque  sensum  quisquam 
suspicari  potest,  multaque  eiusdem  monstra,  quippe 
qui  bellum,  qui  discordiam,  qui  cupiditatem  ceteraque 
generis  eiusdem  ad  deum  revocet,  quae  vel  morbo 

^  cingetur  Jst :   cingatur. 

*  qua  St.  Avgustine  :   quae. 

'  propterea  Reid  :   praeterea. 

•  larn  P.  quiddam  commenticium  ?  ed, 

^  ardorum  pr.  B  :   ardorem. 

*  cingat  Ernesti. 

80 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xi. 

But  mind  is  itself  the  innermost  principle.     Mind 
therefore  will  have  an  outer  integument  of  body. 

27  But  this  Anaxagoras  will  not  allow  ;  yet  mind  naked 
and  simple,  without  any  material  adjunct  to  serve 
as  an  organ  of  sensation,  seems  to  elude  the  capacity 
of  our  understanding.  Alcmaeon  of  Croton,  who 
attributed  divinity  to  the  sun,  moon  and  other 
heavenly  bodies,  and  also  to  the  soul,  did  not  perceive 
that  he  was  besto^ving  immortahty  on  things  that 
are  mortal.  As  for  Pythagoras,  who  believed  that 
the  entire  substance  of  the  universe  is  penetrated 
and  pervaded  by  a  soul  of  which  our  souls  are  frag- 
ments,  he  failed  to  notice  that  this  severance  of  the 
souls  of  men  from  the  world-soul  means  the  dis- 
memberment  and  rending  asunder  of  god;  and  that 
when  their  souls  areunhappy,as  happens  to  most  men, 
then  a  portion  of  god  is  unhappy  ;  which  is  impossible. 

28  Again,  if  the  soul  of  man  is  divine,  why  is  it  not 
omniscient  ?  Moreover,  if  the  Pythagorean  god  is 
pure  soul,  how  is  he  implanted  in,  or  diffused  through- 
out,  the  world?  Next,  Xenophanes  endowed  the  uni- 
verse  with  mind,  and  held  that,  as  being  infinite,  it 
was  god.  His  view  of  mind  is  as  open  to  objection 
as  that  of  the  rest ;  but  on  the  subject  of  infinity 
he  incurs  still  severer  criticism,  for  the  infinite  can 
have  no  sensation  and  no  contact  with  anything 
outside.  As  for  Parmenides,  he  invents  a  purely 
fanciful  something  resembhng  a  crown — stephane 
is  his  name  for  it — ,  an  unbroken  ring  of  glowing  hghts, 
encirchng  the  sky,  which  he  entitles  god  ;  but  no 
one  can  imagine  this  to  possess  divine  form,  or 
sensation.  He  also  has  many  other  portentous 
notions ;  he  deifies  war,  strife,  lust  and  the  hke,  things 
which  can  be  destroyed  by  disease  or  sleep  or  forget- 

31 


CICERO 

vel    somno    vel    oblivione    vel    vetustate    delentur ; 
eademque  de  sideribus,  quae  reprehensa  in  alio  iam 

29  in  hoc  omittantur.  XII.  Empedocles  autem  multa 
alia  peccans  in  deorum  opinione  turpissume  labitur. 
Quattuor  enim  naturas  ex  quibus  omnia  constare 
censet  divinas  esse  vult  ;  quas  et  nasci  et  extingui 
perspicuum  est  et  sensu  omni  carere.  Nec  vero 
Protagoras,  qui  sese  negat  omnino  de  deis  habere 
quod  liqueat,  sint  non  sint  qualesve  sint,  quicquam 
videtur  de  natura  deorum  suspicari.  Quid  ?  Demo- 
critus,  qui  tum  imagines  earumque  circumitus  in 
deorum  numerum^  refert,  tum  illam  naturam  quae 
imagines  fundat  ac  mittat,  tum  scientiam-  intelle- 
gentiamque  nostram,  nonne  in  maximo  errore  ver- 
satur  }  cum  idem  omnino,  quia  nihil  semper  suo 
statu  maneat,  negat^  esse  quicquam  sempiternum, 
nonne  deum  omnino  ita  tolUt  ut  nuUam  opinionem 
eius  reUquam  faciat  ?  Quid  ?  aer,  quo  Diogenes 
ApoUoniates  utitur  deo,  quem  sensum  habere  potest 

30  aut  quam  formam  dei  ?  lam  de  Platonis  incon- 
stantia  longum  est  dicere,  qui  in  Timaeo  patrera  huius 
mundi  nominari  neget  posse,  in  Legum  autem  Ubris, 
quid  sit  omnino  deus  anquiri  oportere  non  censeat. 
Quod*  vero  sine  corpore  uUo  deum  vult  esse  (ut 
Graeci  dicunt  do-oj/xaroi'),  id  quale  esse  possit  inteUegi 
non  potest  :  careat  enim  sensu  necesse  est,  careat 
etiam  prudentia,  careat  voluptate  ;    quae  omnia  una 

*  numerum  Lambinus  :    numero. 

*  scientiam  dett. :   sententiam  sensum ;  ci.  Plasherg. 
'  negat  pr.  B  :    neget. 

*  Quod  .  .  .  comprehendimus  infra  post   Idem  .  .  .  re- 
pugnantia  transponenda  Mayor. 

'  See  infra,  §  120  n. 
*  Timaeus  28  o.  «  Laws  vii.  821. 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xi.— xii. 

fulness  or  lapse  of  time;  and  he  also  deifies  the  stars, 

but  this  has  been  criticized  in  another  philosopher 

and  need   not   be   dealt  with   now  in  the   case   of 

29  Parmenides.     XII.  Empedocles  again  among  many 

other  blunders  comes  to  grief  most  disgracefuUy  in 

his  theology.     He  assigns  divinity  to  the  four  sub- 

stances   which   in   his    system    are   the    constituent 

elements  of  the  universe,  althouo-h  manifestly  these 

substances  both  come  into  and  pass  out  of  existence, 

and  are  entirely  devoid  of  sensation.     Protagoras  also, 

who  declares  he  has  no  clear  views  whatever  about  the 

gods,  whether  they  exist  or  do  not  exist,  or  what 

they  are  hke,  seems  to  have  no  notion  at  all  of  the 

divine  nature.     Then  in  what  a  maze   of  error  is 

Democritus  "  involved,  who  at  one  moment  ranks  as 

gods  his  roving  '  images,'  at  another  the  substance 

that  emits  and  radiates  these  images,  and  at  another 

again  the  scientific  intelligence  of  man  !     At  the  same 

time  his  denial  of  immutabihty,  and  therefore  of 

eternity,  to  everything  whatsoever  surely  involves  a 

repudiation  of  deity  so  absolute  as  to  leave  no  con- 

ception  of  a  divine  being  remaining  !     Diogenes  of 

Apollonia    makes    air    a    god ;    but    how    can    air 

30  have  sensation,  or  di\"inity  in  any  shape  ?     The  in- 

consistencies   of   Plato   are   a  long   story.      In   the 

Timaeus  ^  he  says  that  it  is  impossible  to  name  the 

father  of  this  universe  ;  and  in  the  Lajvs  ^  he  depre- 

cates    all    inquiry    into    the    nature    of    the    deity. 

Again,^   he  holds    that  god  is  entirely  incorporeal 

(in    Greek,   asomatos)  ;     but    divine    incorporeity    is 

inconceivable,     for     an     incorporeal     deity    would 

necessarily    be    incapable    of    sensation,    and    also 

of  practical  wisdom,  and  of  pleasure,  all  of  which 

*  This  sentence  should  probably  foilow  :he  next  one. 

33 


CICERO 

cum  deorum  notione  comprehendimus.  Idem  et  in 
Timaeo  dicit  et  in  Legibus  et  mundum  deum  esse 
et  caelum  et  astra  et  terram  et  animos  et  eos  quos 
maiorum  institutis  accepimus  ;  quae  et  per  se  sunt 
falsa  perspicue  et  inter  se  vehementer  repugnantia. 

31  Atque  etiam  Xenophon  paucioribus  verbis  eadem 
fere  peccat  ;  facit  enim  in  iis  quae  a  Socrate  dicta 
rettuHt  Socratem  disputantem  formam  dei  quaeri 
non  oportere,  eundemque  et  solem  et  animum  deum 
dicere,  et  modo  unum  tum  autem  plures  deos  ; 
quae  sunt  isdem  in  erratis  fere  quibus  ea  quae  de 

32  Platone  diximus.  XIII.  Atque  etiam  Antisthenes 
in  eo  hbro  qui  Physicus  inscribitur  popularis  deos 
multos  naturalem  unum  esse  dicens  tolht  vim  et 
naturam  deorum.  Nec  multo  secus  Speusippus 
Platonem  avunculum  subsequens  et  vim  quandam 
dicens  qua  omnia  regantur,  eamque  animalem,  evel- 

33  lere  ex  animis  conatur  cognitionem  deorum.  Aristo- 
telesque  in  tertio  de  philosophia  hbro  multa  turbat 
a  magistro  suo^  Platone  <non>2  dissentiens  ;  modo 
enim  menti  tribuit  omnem  divinitatem,  modo  mun- 
dum  ipsum  deum  dicit  esse,  modo  ahum  quendam 
praeficit  mundo  eique  eas  partis  tribuit  ut  rephca- 
tione  quadam  mundi  motum  regat  atque  tueatur, 

1  suo  dett. :   uno  y/,  B.  ^  Manutius. 

"  The  Memorahilia. 

*  One  of  the  popular  treatises  of  Aristotle  not  now  extant, 
quotcd  i.  107,  ii.  37,  42,  44,  51,  95. 

«  The  insertion  of  the  ncgative  is  a  probable  emcnda- 
tion,  since  the  identification  of  the  Peripatetic  doctrines  with 

84. 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xii.— xiii. 

are  attributes  essential  to  our  conception  of  deit}\ 
Yet  both  in  the  Timaeus  and  the  Laws  he  says  that 
the  world,  the  sky,  the  stars,  the  earth  and  our 
souls  are  gods,  in  addition  to  those  in  whom 
we  have  been  taught  to  believe  by  ancestral 
tradition  ;  but  it  is  obvious  that  these  propositions 
are  both  inherently  false  and  mutually  destructive. 

11  Xenophon  also  commits  almost  the  same  errors, 
though  in  fewer  words  ;  for  in  his  memoir"  of  the 
sayings  of  Socrates  he  represents  Socrates  as  arguing 
that  it  is  wrong  to  inquire  about  the  form  of  god, 
but  also  as  saying  that  both  the  sun  and  the  soul  are 
god,  and  as  speaking  at  one  moment  of  a  single  god 
and  at  another  of  several :  utterances  that  involve 
almost  the  same  mistakes  as  do  those  which  we 

}2  quoted  from  Plato.  XIII.  Antisthenes  also,  in  his 
book  entitled  The  Natural  Philosopker,  says  that  while 
there  are  many  gods  of  popular  behef,  there  is  one 
god  in  nature,  so  depriving  divinity  of  all  meaning 
or  substance.  Very  similarly  Speusippus,  foUowing 
his  uncle  Plato,  and  speaking  of  a  certain  force  that 
governs  all  things  and  is  endowed  with  life,  does  his 
best  to  root  out  the  notion  of  deity  from  our  minds 

13  altogether.  And  Aristotle  in  the  Third  IBook  of  his 
Philosophy  ^  has  a  great  many  confused  notions,  <not><' 
disagreeing  with  the  doctrines  of  his  master  Plato  ; 
at  one  moment  he  assigns  divinity  exclusively  to  the 
intellect,  at  another  he  says  that  the  world  is  itself  a 
god,  then  again  he  puts  some  other  being  over  the 
world,  and  assigns  to  this  being  the  role  of  regulating 
and  sustaining  the  world-motion  by  means  of  a  sort 

those  of  Plato  was  made  by  Antiochus,  and  is  often  pro- 
pounded  by  Cicero  (Mayor)  ;  although  it  is  true  that  it  Ls 
not  appropriate  to  the  Epicurean  speaker  here  (Plasberg). 

S5 


CICERO 

tum  caeli  ardorem  deum  dicit  esse,  non  intellegens 
caelum  mundi  esse  partem  quem  alio  loco  ipse 
designarit  deum.  Quo  modo  autem  caeli  divinus  ille 
sensus  in  celeritate  tanta  conservari  potest  ?  ubi 
deinde  illi  tot  di,  si  numeramus  etiam  caelum  deum  ? 
cum  autem  sine  corpore  idem  vult  esse  deum,  omni 
illum  sensu  privat,  <privat>^  etiam  prudentia.  Quo 
porro  modo  [mundus]^  moveri  carens  corpore,  aut 
quo  modo  semper  se  movens  esse  quietus  et  beatus 

34  potest  ?  Nec  vero  eius  condiscipulus  Xenocrates  in 
hoc  genere  prudentior,  cuius  in  libris  qui  sunt  de 
natura  deorum  nuUa  species  divina  describitur  ;  deos 
enim  octo  esse  dicit,  quinque  eos  qui  in  stellis  vagis 
moventur,^  unum  qui  ex  omnibus  sideribus  quae  infixa 
caelo  sunt  ex  dispersis  quasi  membris  simplex  sit 
putandus  deus,  septimum  solem  adiungit  octavamque 
lunam  ;  qui  quo  sensu  beati  esse  possint,  intellegi 
non  potest.  Ex  eadem  Platonis  schola  Ponticus 
HeracHdes  pueriUbus  fabidis  refersit  hbros  et  [tamen] 
modo^  mundum,  tum  mentem  divinam  esse  putat, 
errantibus  etiam  stelHs  divinitatem  tribuit,  sensuque 
deum  privat  et  eius  formam  mutabilem  esse  vult, 
eodemque  in  Ubro  rursus  terram  et  caelum  refert  in 

35  deos.  Nec  vero  Theophrasti  inconstantia  ferenda 
est ;  modo  enim  menti  divinum  tribuit  principatum, 
modo  caelo,  tum  autem  signis  sideribusque  caelesti- 

^  ci.  Plasherg.  ^  Heindorf. 

^  moventur  Reid  :   nominantur. 

*  [tamen]  modo  edd.  :  tum  modo,  tum  dett. :  modo 
mundum,  tum  autem  Diecklioff. 

*•  Aristotle  explained  the  apparently  irregular  motions  of 
the  planets  by  ascribing  to  them  distinct  spheres  rotating  in 
opposite  directions;  the  counter-rotation  was  aveLXt^ts,  of 
36 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xiii. 

of  inverse  rotation  "  ;  then  he  says  that  the  celestial 
heat''  is  god — not  reahzing  that  the  heavens  are  a 
part  of  that  world  which  elsewhere  he  himself  has 
entitled  god.  But  how  could  the  divine  consciousness 
which  he  assigns  to  the  heavens  persist  in  a  state  of 
such  rapid  motion  ?  Where  moreover  are  all  the  gods 
of  accepted  beUef,  if  we  count  the  heavens  also  as  a 
god  ?  Again,  in  maintaining  that  god  is  incorporeal, 
he  robs  him  entirely  of  sensation,  and  also  of  wisdom. 
Moreover,  how  is  motion  possible  for  an  incorporeal 
being,  and  how,  if  he  is  always  in  motion,  can  he 

H  enjoy  tranquilhty  and  bUss  ?  Nor  was  his  feUow-pupil 
Xenocrates  any  wiser  on  this  subject.  His  volumes 
On  the  Nature  of  the  Gods  give  no  inteUigible  account 
of  the  divine  form  ;  for  he  states  that  there  are  eight 
gods  :  five  inhabiting  the  planets,  and  in  a  state  of 
motion  ;  one  consisting  of  aU  the  fixed  stars,  which 
are  to  be  regarded  as  separate  members  constituting 
a  single  deity  ;  seventh  he  adds  the  sun,  and  eighth 
the  moon.  But  what  sensation  of  bUss  these  beings 
can  enjoy  it  is  impossible  to  conceive.  Another  mem- 
ber  of  the  school  of  Plato,  HeracUdes  of  Pontus,  fiUed 
volume  after  volume  with  childish  fictions  ;  at  one 
moment  he  deems  the  world  divine,  at  another  the 
inteUect ;  he  also  assigns  divinity  to  the  planets,  and 
holds  that  the  deity  is  devoid  of  sensation  and 
mutable  of  form  ;    and  again  in  the  same  volume  he 

35  reckons  earth  and  sky  as  gods.  Theophrastus  also  is 
intolerably  inconsistent  ;  at  one  moment  he  assigns 
divine  pre-eminence  to  mind,  at  another  to  the 
heavens,  and  then  again  to  the  constellations  and  stars 

which  replicatio  here  is  perhaps  a  translation,  although  how 
it  could  be  assigned  to  the  universe  is  obscure. 
*  Ihe  aether. 

S7 


CICERO 

bus.  Nec  audiendus  eius  auditor  Strato,  is  qul 
physicus  appellatur,  qui  omnem  vim  divinam  in 
natura  sitam  esse  censet,  quae  causas  gignendi 
augendi  minuendi  habeat  sed  careat  omni  et  sensu 
et  figura. 

36  XIV.  "  Zeno  autem,  ut  iam  ad  vestros,  Balbe, 
veniam,  naturalem  legem  di^inam  esse  censet,  eam- 
que  vim  obtinere  recta  imperantem  prohibentem- 
que  contraria.  Quam  legem  quo  modo  efficiat 
animantem  intellegere  non  possumus  ;  deum  autem 
animantem  certe  volumus  esse.  Atque  hic  idem  aHo 
loco  aethera  deum  dicit — si  intellegi  potest  nihil 
sentiens  deus,  qui  numquam  nobis  occurrit  neque  in 
precibus  neque  in  optatis  neque  in  votis  ;  ahis  autem 
hbris  rationem  quandam  per  omnem^  naturam  rerum 
pertinentem  vi  divina  esse  adfectam  putat.  Idem 
astris  hoc  idem  tribuit,  tum  annis  mensibus  annorum- 
que  mutationibus.  Cum  vero  Hesiodi  Theogom'am, 
id  est  originem  deorum,  interpretatur,  tolht  omnino 
usitatas  perceptasque  cognitiones  deorum  ;  neque 
enim  lovem  neque  lunonem  neque  Vestam  neque 
quemquam  qui  ita  appellatur^  in  deorum  habet 
numero,  sed  rebus  inanimis  atque  mutis  per  quandam 

37  significationem  haec  docet  tributa  nomina.  Cuius 
discipuh  Aristonis  non  minus  magno  in  errore  sen- 
tentia  est,  qui  neque  formam  dei  intellegi  posse 
censeat  neque  in  deis  sensum  esse  dicat,  dubitetque 
omnino  deus  animans  necne  sit.  Cleanthes  autem, 
qui  Zenonem  audivit  una  cum  eo  quem  proxime 
nominavi,  tum  ipsum  mundum  deum  dicit  esse,  tum 

1  omnem  dett.  :   omnium. 
2  appellatur  dett.  :   appelletur. 

•  Cf.  M.  AureUus  v.  32  6  StA  ttjj/  ovalav  diifKuv  \&yos, 
S8 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xiii.— xiv. 

in  the  heavens.  Nor  is  his  pupil,  Strato,  surnamed 
the  Natural  Philosopher,  worthy  of  attention  ;  in  his 
view  the  sole  repository  of  divine  power  is  nature, 
which  contains  in  itself  the  causes  of  birth,  growth  and 
decay,  but  is  entirely  devoid  of  sensation  and  of  form. 

I  XIV.  "  Lastly,  Balbus,  I  come  to  your  Stoic  school. 
Zeno's  view  is  that  the  law  of  nature  is  divine,  and 
that  its  function  is  to  command  what  is  right  and  to 
forbid  the  opposite.  How  he  makes  out  this  law  to 
be  aHve  passes  our  comprehension ;  yet  we  un- 
doubtedly  expect  god  to  be  a  Hving  being.  In 
another  passage  however  Zeno  declares  that  the 
aether  is  god — if  there  is  any  meaning  in  a  god 
without  sensation,  a  form  of  deity  that  never  presents 
itself  to  us  when  we  offer  up  our  prayers  and  sup- 
pHcations  and  make  our  vows.  And  in  other  books 
again  he  holds  the  view  that  a  *  reason  '  which  per- 
vades  aD  nature  "  is  possessed  of  divine  power.  He 
Hke^\ise  attributes  the  same  powers  to  the  stars,  or 
at  another  time  to  the  years,  the  months  and  the 
seasons.  Again,  in  his  interpretation  of  Hesiod's 
Theogony  (or  Origin  of  the  Gods)  he  does  away  with 
the  customary  and  received  ideas  of  the  gods  alto- 
gether,  for  he  does  not  reckon  either  Jupiter,  Juno 
or  Vesta  as  gods,  or  any  being  that  bears  a  personal 
name,  but  teaches  that  these  names  have  been 
assigned  aHegoricaHy  to  dumb  and  Hfeless  things. 

1  Zeno's  pupil  Aristo  holds  equally  mistaken  views. 
He  thinks  that  the  form  of  the  deity  cannot  be  com- 
prehended,  and  he  denies  the  gods  sensation,  and 
in  fact  is  uncertain  whether  god  is  a  Hving  being  at 
all.  Cleanthes,  who  attended  Zeno's  lectures  at  the 
same  time  as  the  last-named,  at  one  moment  says 
that  the  world  itself  is  god,  at  another  gives  tliis 

39 


CICERO 

totius  naturae  menti  atque  animo  tribuit  hoc  nomen, 
tum  ultimum  et  altissimum  atque  undique  circum- 
fusum  et  extremum  omnia  cingentem  atque  con- 
plexum  ardorem,  qui  aether  nominetur,  certissimum 
deum  iudicat ;  idemque  quasi  dehrans,  in  iis  Ubris 
quos  scripsit  contra  voluptatem,  tum  fingit  formam 
quandam  et  speciem  deorum,  tum  divinitatem  om- 
nem  tribuit  astris,  tum  nihil  ratione  censet  esse 
di\dnius.  Ita  fit  ut  deus  ille  quem  mente  noscimus 
atque  in  animi  notione  tamquam  in  vestigio  volumus 

38  reponerenusquam  prorsus  appareat.  XV.  At  Persaeus 
eiusdem  Zenonis  auditor  eos  esse^  habitos  deos  a 
quibus  ahqua  magna  utiUtas  ad  vitae  cultum  esset 
inventa,  ipsasque  res  utiles  et  salutares  deorum  esse 
vocabuhs  nuncupatas,  ut  ne  hoc  quidemdiceret,illa  in- 
venta  esse  deorum,  sed  ipsa  divina ;  quo  quid  absurdius 
quam  aut  res  sordidas  atque  deformis  deorum  honore 
adficere  aut  homines  iam  morte  deletos  reponere  in 
deos,  quorum  omnis  cultus  esset  futurus  in  luctu  ? 

39  lam  vero  Chrysippus,  qui  Stoicorum  somniorum 
vaferrumus  habetur  interpres,  magnam  turbam  con- 
gregat  ignotorum  deorum,  atque  ita  ignotorum  ut 
eos  ne  coniectura  quidem  informare  possimus,  cum 
mens  nostra  quidvis  videatur  cogitatione  posse 
depingere,  ait  enim  vim  divinam  in  ratione  esse 
positam  et  in  universae  naturae  animo  atque  mente, 
ipsumque  mundum  deum  dicit  esse  et  eius  animi 
fusionem  universam,  tum  eius  ipsius  principatum  qui 
in  mente  et  ratione  versetur,  communemque  rerum 

»  eos  dicit  esse  det, 
40 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xiv.— xv. 

name  to  the  mind  and  soul  of  the  miiverse,  and  at 
another  decides  that  the  most  unquestionable  deity 
is  that  remote  all-surrounding  fiery  atmosphere  called 
the  aether,  which  encircles  and  embraces  the  universe 
on  its  outer  side  at  an  exceedingly  lofty  altitude  ; 
while  in  the  books  that  he  wrote  to  combat  hedonism 
he  babbles  Hke  one  demented,  now  imagining  gods 
of  some  definite  shape  and  form,  now  assigning 
full  divinity  to  the  stars,  now  pronouncing  that 
nothing  is  more  di^-ine  than  reason.  The  result  is 
that  the  god  whom  we  apprehend  by  our  intelhgence, 
and  desire  to  make  to  correspond  with  a  mental 
concept  as   a  seal  taUies   ^\ith  its  impression,   has 

38  utterly  and  entirely  vanished.  XV.  Persaeus,  another 
pupil  of  Zeno,  says  that  men  have  deified  those  per- 
sons  who  have  made  some  discovery  of  special  utility 
for  civlhzation,  and  that  useful  and  health-gi\ing 
things  have  themselves  been  called  by  divine  names  ; 
he  did  not  even  say  that  they  were  discoveries  of 
the  gods,  but  speaks  of  them  as  actually  divine.  But 
what  could  be  more  ridiculous  than  to  award  diviiie 
honours  to  things  mean  and  ugly,  or  to  give  the  rank 
of  gods  to  men  now  dead  and  gone,  whose  worship 

B9  could  only  take  the  form  of  lamentation  ?  Chrysippus, 
who  is  deemed  to  be  the  most  skilful  interpreter  of 
the  Stoic  dreams,  musters  an  enormous  mob  of  un- 
known  gods — so  utterly  unknown  that  even  imagina- 
tion  cannot  guess  at  their  form  and  nature,  although 
our  mind  appears  capable  of  visuahzing  anything  ; 
for  he  says  that  divine  power  resides  in  reason,  and 
in  the  soul  and  mind  of  the  universe  ;  he  calls  the 
world  itself  a  god,  and  also  the  all-pervading  world- 
soul,  and  again  the  guiding  principle  of  that  soul, 
which    operates   in   the   intellect   and   reason,   and 

41 


CICERO 

naturam  [universam]  atque^  omnia  continentem, 
tum  fatalem  vim^  et  necessitatem  rerum  futurarum, 
ignem  praeterea  [et]^  eum  quem  ante  dixi  aethera, 
timi  ea  quae  natura  fluerent  atque  manarent,  ut*  et 
aquam  et  terram  et  aera.  solem  lunam  sidera  uni- 
tatemque^  rerum  qua  omnia  continerentur,  atque 
etiam  homines  eos  qui  inmortahtatem  essent  con- 

40  secuti.  Idemque  disputat  aethera  esse  eum  quem 
homines  lovem  appellarent,  quique  aer  per  maria 
manaret  eum  esse  Xeptunum,  terramque  eam  esse 
quae  Ceres  diceretur,  simihque  ratione  persequitur 
vocabula  rehquorum  deorum.  Idemque®  etiam  legis 
perpetuae  et  aeternae  vim,  quae  quasi  dux  vitae  et 
magistra  officiorum  sit,  lovem  dicit  esse,  eandemque 
fatalem  necessitatem  appellat  <et>'  sempiternam 
rerum  futurarum  veritatem ;  quorum  nihil  tale  est  ut 

41  in  eo  \as  divina  inesse  videatur.  Et  haec  quidem  in 
primo  hbro  de  natura  deorum  ;  in  secundo  autem  volt 
Orphei  Musaei  Hesiodi  Homerique  fabellas  accom- 
modare  ad  ea  quae  ipse  primo  hbro  de  deis  inmortaH- 
bus  dixerat,^  ut  etiam  veterrimi  poetae,  qui  haec  ne 
suspicati  quidem  sint,^  Stoici  fuisse  videantur.  Quem 
Diogenes  Babylonius  consequens  in  eo  hbro  qui 
inscribitur  de  Minervapartum  lovis  ortumque  virginis 
ad  physiologiam  traducens  diiungit  a  fabula. 

42  XVI.  "  Exposui  fere  non  philosophorum  iudicia  sed 
dehrantium  somnia.  Nec  enim  multo  absurdiora  sunt 
ea  quae  poetarum  vocibus  fusa  ipsa  suavitate  nocue- 
runt,    qui    et    ira    inflammatos    et    hbidine    furentis 

^  [universam]  atque  Pearson  :   universitatemque  Heindorf. 

2  vim  det. :   orbem  ;   umbram  von  Arnim,following  be-et  mss. 

3  secl.  Bouhier.  *  ut  <aethera>  ci.  Plasberg. 

^  unitatemque  Pearson  :  universitatemque. 

•  eundemque  Rohy.  '  add.  Bouhier. 

8  dixerit  A,  B  :  dixit  Nobbe.  »  sunt  dett. 

42 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xv.— xvi. 

the  common  and  all-embracing  nature  of  things  ; 
and  also  the  power  of  Fate,  and  the  Necessity  that 
governs  future  events  ;  beside  this,  the  fire  that  I 
previously  termed  aether  ;  and  also  all  fluid  and 
soluble  substances,  such  as  water,  earth,  air,  the 
sun,  moon  and  stars,  and  the  all-embracing  unity 
of  things  ;    and  even  those  human  beings  who  have 

40  attained  immortahty.  He  also  argues  that  the 
god  whom  men  call  Jupiter  is  the  aether,  and  that 
Neptune  is  the  air  which  permeates  the  sea,  and  the 
goddess  called  Ceres  the  earth ;  and  he  deals  in  the 
same  way  with  the  whole  series  of  the  names  of  the 
other  gods.  He  also  identifies  Jupiter  with  the  mighty 
Law,  everlasting  and  etemal,  which  is  our  guide  of 
hfe  and  instructress  in  duty,  and  which  he  entitles 
Necessity  or  Fate,  and  the  Everlasting  Truth  of  future 
events  ;    none   of  which   conceptions  is   of  such   a 

41  nature  as  to  be  deemed  to  possess  divinity.  This  is 
what  is  contained  in  his  Nature  of  the  Gods,  Book  I. 
In  Book  n.  he  aims  at  reconcihng  the  myths  of 
Orpheus,  Musaeus,  Hesiod  and  Homer  with  his  o-vvn 
theology  as  enunciated  in  Book  I.,  and  so  makes 
out  that  even  the  earJiest  poets  of  antiquity,  who 
had  no  notion  of  these  doctrines,  were  really  Stoics. 
In  this  he  is  followed  by  Diogenes  of  Babylon,  who 
in  his  book  entitled  Minerva  rationahzes  the  myth  of 
the  birth  of  the  virgin  goddess  from  Jove  by  ex- 
plaining  it  as  an  allegory  of  the  processcs  of  nature. 

42  XVI.  "  I  have  given  a  rough  account  of  what  are  Tiieologyof 
more  hke  the  dreams  of  madmen  than  the  considered  ^°^^^.  ^"^, 

•     •  ^       1  .1  1  -r>  1  T     1       1  ofonental 

opimons  oi  philosophers.     ror  they  are  httle   iess  reiigion 
absurd  than  the  outpourings  of  the  poets,  harmful  ^^°"^- 
as  these  have  been  owing  to  the  mere  charm  of  their 
style.     The  poets  have  represented  the  gods  as  in- 

43 


CICERO 

induxerunt  deos  feceruntque  ut  eorum  bella  proelia 
pugnas  vulnera  videremus,  odia  praeterea  discidia 
discordias,  ortus  interitus,  querellas  lamentationes, 
effusas  in  omni  intemperantia^  libidines,  adulteria, 
\Tincula,  cum  humano  genere  concubitus  mortalisque 

43  ex  inmortali  procreatos.  Cum  poetarum  autem 
errore  coniungere  licet  portenta  magoriun  Aegyptio- 
rumque  in  eodem  genere  dementiam,  tum  etiam 
vulgi  opiniones,  quae  in  maxima  inconstantia  veritatis 
ignoratione  versantur. 

"  Ea  qui  consideret  quam  inconsulte  ac  temere 
dicantur,  venerari  Epicurum  et  in  eorum  ipsorum 
numero  de  quibus  haec  quaestio  est  habere  debeat. 
Solus  enim  \-idit  primum  esse  deos,  quod  in  omnium 
animis  eorum  notionem  inpressisset  ipsa  natura. 
Quae  est  enim  gens  aut  quod  genus  hominum,  quod 
non  habeat  sine  doctrina  anticipationem  quandam 
deorum  ?  quam  appellat  TrfjoXrj^piv  Epicurus,  id  est 
anteceptam  animo  rei  quandam  informationem,  sine 
qua  nec  intellegi  quicquam  nec  quaeri  nec  disputari 
possit.2  Cuius  rationis  vim  atque  utilitatem  ex  illo 
caelesti  Epicuri  de  regula  et  iudicio  volumine  accepi- 

44  mus.  XVII.  Quod  igitur  fundamentum  huius  quaes- 
tionis  est,  id  praeclare  iactum  videtis.  Cum  enim 
non  instituto  aliquo  aut  more  aut  lege  sit  opinio 
constituta  maneatque  ad  unum  omnium  firma  con- 
sensio,  intellegi  necesse  est  esse  deos,  quoniam  insitas 
eorum  vel  potius  innatas  cognitiones  habemus  ;  de 
quo  autem  omnium  natura  consentit,  id  verum  esse 

*  omnem  intemperantiam  ?  ed. 
2  possit  dett. :  potest  A^  B. 

•  C/.  Lucr.  V.  8  "deus  ille  fuit,  deus,  inclute  Memmi.*' 
^  Diog.  L.  X.  27  U.€pl  KpLTTjpiov  Tj  Kavdiv, 

44 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xvi.— x\ii. 

flamed  by  anger  and  maddened  by  lust,  and  have 
displayed  to  our  gaze  their  wars  and  battles,  their 
fights  and  wounds,  their  hatreds,  enmities  and  quar- 
rels,  their  births  and  deaths,  their  complaints  and 
lamentations,  the  utter  and  unbridled  hcence  of  their 
passions,  their  adulteries  and  imprisonments,  their 
unions  with  human  beings  and  the  birth  of  mortal 

3  progeny  from  an  immortal  parent.  With  the  errors 
of  the  poets  may  be  classed  the  monstrous  doctrines 
of  the  magi  and  the  insane  mythology  of  Egypt,  and 
also  the  popular  behefs,  which  are  a  mere  mass  of 
inconsistencies  sprung  from  ignorance. 

"  Anyone  pondering  on  the  baseless  and  irrational  Exposition 
character  of  these  doctrines  ought  to  regard  Epicurus  tifo^o^Ly^^^ 
with  reverence,  and  to  rank  him  as  one  of  the  very  Universai 
gods  about  whom  v>e  are  inquiring.'*  For  he  alone  per-  suffldent 
ceivedjfirstjthat  the  gods  exist,because  nature  herself  proof  of  the 
has  imprinted  a  conception  of  them  on  the  minds  of  ence,  and  ' 
all  mankind.     For  what  nation  or  what  tribe  of  men  ?f  their 

1  ,  .        ,  immortality 

is  there  but  possesses  untaught  some  preconception  and  biiss. 
of  the  gods  .''  Such  notions  Epicurus  designates  by 
the  word  prolepsis,  that  is,  a  sort  of  preconceived 
mental  picture  of  a  thing,  without  which  nothing 
can  be  understood  or  investigated  or  discussed.  The 
force  and  value  of  this  argument  we  learn  in  that 
work  of  genius,  Epicurus's  Rule  or  Standard  of  Judge- 

4  ment.^  X\TL  You  see  therefore  that  the  foundation 
(for  such  it  is)  of  our  inquiry  has  been  well  and  truly 
laid.  For  the  behef  in  the  gods  has  not  been  estab- 
Ushed  by  authority,  custom  or  law,  but  rests  on  the 
unanimous  and  abiding  consensus  of  mankind  ;  their 
existence  is  therefore  a  necessary  inference,  since  we 
possess  an  instinctive  or  rather  an  innate  concept  of 
them  ;   but  a  beUef  which  all  men  by  nature  share 

45 


CICERO 

necesse  est ;  esse  igitur  deos  confitendum  est.  Quod 
quoniam  fere  constat  inter  omnis  non  philosophos 
solum  sed  etiam  indoctos,  fateamur  constare  illud 
etiam,  hanc  nos  habere  sive  anticipationem  ut  ante 
dixi  sive  praenotionem  deorum  (sunt  enim  rebus 
novis  nova  ponendanomina,  ut  Epicurus  ipse  TrpoXrjij/LV 
appellavit,  quam  antea  nemo  eo  verbo  nominarat) — 
45  hanc  igitur  habemus,  ut  deos  beatos  et  inmortales 
putemus.  Quae  enim  nobis  natura  informationem 
ipsorum  deorum  dedit,  eadem  insculpsit  in  mentibus 
ut  eos  aeternos  et  beatos  haberemus.  Quod  si  ita 
est,  vere  exposita  illa  sententia  est  ab  Epicuro,  quod 
beatum  aeternumque  sit  id  nec  habere  ipsum  negotii 
quicquam  nec  exhibere  alteri,  itaque  neque  ira  neque 
gratia  teneri  quod  quae  talia  essent  imbecilla  essent 
omnia. 

**  Si  nihil  ahud  quaereremus  nisi  ut  deos  pie 
coleremus  et  ut  superstitione  hberaremur,  satis  erat 
dictum  ;  nam  et  praestans  deorum  natura  hominum 
pietate  coleretur,  cum  et  aeterna  esset  et  beatissima 
(habet  enim  venerationem  iustam  quicquid  excellit), 
et  metus  omnis  a  vi  atque  ira  deorum  pulsus  esset 
(intellegitur  enim  a  beata  inmortalique  natura  et 
iram  et  gratiam  segregari,  quibus  remotis  nullos  a 
superis  impendere  metus).     Sed  ad  hanc  confirman- 

•  Diog.  L.  X.  139  t6  fj.aK6.piov  koI  &<p6apTou  o{jt€  avTb  vpdy' 
fiaTa  e^et  o(jt€  d\X(f)  irapex^';  G}(TT€  oOre  dpyals  oCtc  x^P'-'^'-  <'"'"" 
^^^■'■a.t'  iv  aoOevd  yap  irav  Tb  toiovtov. 

4Jb 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xvii. 

must  necessarily  be  true  ;  therefore  it  must  be 
admitted  that  the  gods  exist.  And  since  this  truth 
is  almost  universally  accepted  not  only  among  phil- 
osophers  but  also  among  the  unlearned,  we  must 
admit  it  as  also  being  an  accepted  truth  that  we 
possess  a  '  preconception,'  as  I  called  it  above,  or 
*  prior  notion,'  of  the  gods.  (For  we  are  bound  to 
employ  novel  terms  to  denote  novel  ideas,  just  as 
Epicurus  himself  employed  the  word  prolepsis  in  a 
45  sense  in  which  no  one  had  ever  used  it  before.)  We 
have  then  a  preconception  of  such  a  nature  that  we 
beUeve  the  gods  to  be  blessed  and  immortal.  For 
nature,  which  bestowed  upon  us  an  idea  of  the 
gods  themselves,  also  engraved  on  our  minds  the 
behef  that  they  are  eternal  and  blessed.  If  this 
is  so,  the  famous  maxim  ^  of  Epicurus  truthfully 
enunciates  that  *  that  which  is  blessed  and  eternal 
can  neither  know  trouble  itself  nor  cause  trouble 
to  another,  and  accordingly  cannot  feel  either  anger 
or  favour,  since  all  such  things  belong  only  to  the 
weak.' 

"  If  we  sought  to  attain  nothing  else  beside  piety  such  goda 
in  worshipping  the  gods   and  freedom  from  super-  ^^^^'^ 
stition,  what  has  been  said  had  sufficed  ;    since  the  passion, 
exalted  nature  of  the  gods,  being  both  eternal  and  twshipped 
supremely  blessed,  would  receive  man's  pious  worship  f"' °°^ 
(for  what  is  highest  commands  the  reverence  that  is 
its   due)  ;    and  furthermore   all   fear   of  the   divine 
power  or  divine  anger  would  have  been  banished 
(since  it  is  understood  that  anger  and  favour  ahke  are 
excluded  from  the  nature  of  a  being  at  once  blessed 
and  immortal,  and  that  these  being  ehminated  we  are 
menaced  by  no  fears  in  regard  to  the  powers  above). 
But  the  mind  strives  to  strengthen  this  beHef  by 

4,7 


CICERO 

dam  opinionem  anquirit  animus  et  formara  et  vitae 
actionem  mentisque  agitationem^  in  deo. 

46  X^^III.  "  Ac  de  forma  quidem  partim  natura  nos 
admonet,  partim  ratio  docet.  Nam  a  natura  habemus 
omnes  omnium  gentium  speciem  nullam  aliam  nisi 
humanam  deorum  ;  quae  enim  forma  alia  occurrit 
umquam  aut  \-igilanti  cuiquam  aut  dormienti  ?  Sed 
ne  omnia  revocentur  ad  primas  notiones,  ratio  hoc 

47  idem  ipsa  declarat.  Nam  cum  praestantissumam 
naturam,  vel  quia  beata  est  vel  quia  sempiterna, 
convenire  videatur  eandem  esse  pulcherrimam,  quae 
conpositio  membrorum,  quae  conformatio  Uniamen- 
torum,  quae  figura,  quae  species  humana  potest  esse 
pulchrior  ?  Vos  quidem,  Lucih,  soletis  (nam  Cotta 
meus  modo  hoc  modo  illud),  cum  artificium  effingitis 
fabricamque  divinam,  quam  sint  omnia  in  hominis 
figura  non  modo  ad  usum  verum  etiam  ad  venustatera 

48  apta  describere.  Quodsi  omnium  animantium  for- 
mam  vincit  hominis  figura,  deus  autem  animans  est, 
ea  figura  profecto  est  quae  pulcherrima  est  omnium, 
quoniamque  deos  beatissimos  esse  constat,  beatus 
autem  esse  sine  virtute  nemo  potest  nec  virtus  sine 
ratione  constare  nec  ratio  usquam  inesse  nisi  in 
hominis  figura,  hominis  esse  specie  deos  confitendum 

49  est.  Nec  tamen  ea  species  corpus  est,  sed  quasi 
corpus,  nec  habet  sanguinem,  sed  quasi  sanguinem. 

XIX.  "  Haec  quamquam  et  inventa  sunt  acutius  et 
dicta  subtihus  ab  Epicuro,  quam  ut  quivis  ea  possit 
agnoscere,  tamen  fretus  intellegentia  vestra  dissero 

^  vitae  .  .  .  agitationem  Beier :  vitam  et  actionem  mentis 
atque  agitationem  mss,  :  vitam  et  actionem  mentisque  agita- 
tionem  Elvenich, 
48 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xvii.— xix. 

tiying  to  discover  the  form  of  god,  the  mode  of  his 
activity,  and  the  operation  of  his  inteUigence. 

46  X\'III.  "  For  the  divine  form  we  have  the  hints  ThegodB 
of  nature  supplemented  by  the  teachings  of  reason.  they^are  in 
From  nature  all  men  of  all  races  derive  the  notion  of  human 
gods  as  having  human  shape  and  none  other  ;   for  in  impercept- 
what  other  shape  do  they  ever  appear  to  anyone,  ggj^^ 
awake  or  asleep  ?     But  not  to  make  primar)-  concepts 

the  sole  test  of  all  things,  reason  itself  dehvers  the 

47  same  pronouncement.  For  it  seems  appropriate  that 
the  being  who  is  the  most  exalted,  whether  by  reason 
of  his  happiness  or  of  his  eternity,  should  also  be 
the  most  beautiful ;  but  what  disposition  of  the  hmbs, 
what  cast  of  features,  what  shape  or  outhne  can  be 
more  beautiful  than  the  human  form  ?  You  Stoics 
at  least,  Lucihus,  (for  my  friend  Cotta  says  one  thing 
at  one  time  and  another  at  another)  are  wont  to  por- 
tray  the  skill  of  the  divine  creator  by  enlarging  on 
the  beauty  as  well  as  the  utiUty  of  design  displayed 

48  in  all  parts  of  the  human  figure.  But  if  the  human 
figure  surpasses  the  fomi  of  all  other  U™g  beings, 
and  god  is  a  Uving  being,  god  must  possess  the  shape 
which  is  the  most  beautiful  of  aU  ;  and  since  it  is 
agreed  that  the  gods  are  supremely  happy,  and  no 
one  can  be  happy  without  virtue,  and  virtue  cannot 
exist  without  reason,  and  reason  is  only  found  in  the 
human  shape,  it  foUows  that  the  gods  possess  the 

49  form  of  man.  Yet  their  form  is  not  corporeal,  but 
only  resembles  bodily  substance  ;  it  does  not  contain 
blood,  but  the  semblance  of  blood. 

XIX.  "  These  discoveries  of  Epicurus  are  so  acute 
in  themselves  and  so  subtly  expressed  that  not  every- 
one  would  be  capable  of  appreciating  them.  StiU  I 
may  rely  on  your  inteUigence,  and  make  my  exposi- 

49 


CICERO 

brevius  quam  causa  desiderat.  Epicurus  autem,  qui 
res  occultas  et  penitus  abditas  non  modo  videat 
animo  sed  etiam  sic  tractet  ut  manu,  docet  eam  esse 
vim  et  naturam  deorum  ut  primum  non  sensu  sed 
mente  cernantur,^  nec  soliditate  quadam  nec  ad 
numerum,  ut  ea  quae  ille  propter  firmitatem  o-Te/ac/xvia 
appellat,  sed  imaginibus  similitudine  et  transitione 
perceptis,  cum  infinita  simillumarum  imaginum  series^ 
ex  innumerabilibus  individuis  existat  et  ad  deos' 
adfluat,  cum  maximis  voluptatibus  in  eas  imagines 
mentem  intentam  infixamque  nostram  intellegentiam 

60  capere  quae  sit  et  beata  natura  et  aeterna.  Summa 
vero  vis  infinitatis  et  magna  ac  diligenti  contem- 
platione  dignissima  est,  in  qua  intellegi  necesse  est 
eam  esse  naturam  ut  omnia  omnibus  paribus  paria 
respondeant.  Hanc  lcrovofxLav  appellat  Epicurus,  id 
est  aequabilem  tributionem.  Ex  hac  igitur  illud 
efficitur,  si  mortalium  tanta  multitudo  sit,  esse 
inmortalium  non  minorem,  et  si  quae  interimant 
innumerabilia  sint,  etiam  ea  quae  conservent  infinita 
esse  debere. 

"  Et  quaerere  a  nobis,  Balbe,  soletis,  quae  vita 

61  deorum  sit  quaeque  ab  iis  degatur  aetas.  Ea  vide- 
licet  qua  nihil  beatius,  nihil  omnibus  bonis  aflfluentius 
cogitari  potest.  Nihil  enim  agit,  nulhs  occupationibus 
est  inphcatus,  nulla  opera  moHtur,  sua  sapientia  et 

^  cernantur  B  :   cernatur. 

*  series  Brieger  :   species. 

■  ad  eos  B :  a  deo,  ad  nos,  a  diis  ad  nos  edd, 

•  Probably  to  be  altered  into  *  streams  to  us  from  the  gods.* 
50 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xix. 

tion  briefer  than  the  subject  demands.  Epicums 
then,  as  he  not  merely  discerns  abstruse  and  recondite 
things  with  his  mind's  eye,  but  handles  them  as 
tangible  reahties,  teaches  that  the  substance  and 
nature  of  the  gods  is  such  that,  in  the  first  place,  it 
is  perceived  not  by  the  senses  but  by  the  mind,  and 
not  materially  or  individually,  hke  the  solid  objects 
which  Epicurus  in  virtue  of  their  substantiahty  en- 
titles  steremnia  ;  but  by  our  perceiving  images  owing 
to  their  similarity  and  succession,  because  an  endless 
train  of  precisely  similar  images  arises  from  the 
innumerable  atoms  and  streams  towards  the  gods,  <» 
our  mind  with  the  keenest  feehngs  of  pleasure  fixes 
its  gaze  on  these  images,  and  so  attains  an  under- 
standing  of  the  nature  of  a  being  both  blessed  and 

60  eternal.      Moreover  there  is  the  supremely  potent  Divine 
principle  of  infinity,  which  claims  the  closest  and  most  p^ove?by*' 
careful   study  ;    we   must   understand    that   it    has  principie  of 
the  foUowing  property,  that  in  the  sum  of  things  librhiin.' 
everything   has   its   exact   match   and   counterpart. 

This  property  is  termed  by  Epicurus  isonomia,  or  the 
principle  of  unifomi  distribution.  From  this  prin- 
ciple  it  follows  that  if  the  whole  number  of  mortals 
be  so  many,  there  must  exist  no  less  a  number  of 
immortals,  and  if  the  causes  of  destruction  are  beyond 
count,  the  causes  of  conservation  also  are  bound  to 
be  infinite. 

"  You  Stoics  are  also  fond  of  asking  us,  Balbus,  what  The  divlna 
is  the  mode  of  hfe  of  the  gods  and  how  they  pass  their  di3tu?id 

61  days.     The  answer  is,  their  life  is  the  happiest  con-  by  creating 
ceivable,  and  the  one  most  bountifully  furnished  with  directing 
all  good  things.    God  is  entirely  inactive  and  free  from  ^hich^gcis 
all  ties  of  occupation  ;  he  toils  not  neither  does  he  by  nature, 
labour,  but  he  takes  delight  in  his  own  ^visdom  and  moJemeni  * 

51 


CICERO 

virtute  gaudet,  habet  exploratum  fore  se  semper  cum 
52  in  maximis  tum  in  aeternis  voluptatibus.  XX.  Hunc 
deum  rite  beatum  dixerimus,  vestrum  vero  laboriosis- 
simum.  Sive  enim  ipse  mundus  deus  est,  quid  potest 
esse  minus  quietum  quam  nullo  puncto  temporis 
intermisso  versari  circum  axem  caeli  admirabili 
celeritate  ?  nisi  quietum  autem  nihil  beatum  est ; 
sive  in  [ipso]^  mundo  deus  inest  aliquis  qui  regat, 
qui  gubernet,  qui  cursus  astrorum  mutationes  tem- 
porum  rerum  vicissitudines  ordinesque  conservet,^ 
terras  et  maria  contemplans  hominum  commoda 
vitasque  tueatur,  ne  ille  est  inpHcatus  molestis 
63  negotiis  et  operosis  !  Nos  autem  beatam  vitam  in 
animi  securitate  et  in  omnium  vacatione  munerum 
ponimus.  Docuit  enim  nos  idem  qui  cetera,  natura 
effectum  esse  mundum,  nihil  opus  fuisse  fabrica, 
tamque  eam  rem  esse  facilem  quam  vos  effici  negatis 
sine  divina  posse  sollertia,  ut  innumerabihs  natura 
mundos  effectura  sit  efficiat  effecerit.  Quod  quia 
quem  ad  modum  natura  efficere  sine  ahqua  mente 
possit  non  videtis,  ut  tragici  poetae  cum  exphcare 
argumenti  exitum  non  potestis  confugitis  ad  deum  ; 
54  cuius  operam  profecto  non  desideraretis  si  inmensam 
et  interminatam  in  omnis  partis  magnitudinem 
regionum  videretis,  in  quam  se  iniciens  animus  et 
intendens  ita  late  longeque  peregrinatur  ut  nuham 
tamen  oram  ultimi^  videat  in  qua  possit  insistere.    In 

^  Schomann. 
2  conservet  <  et  >  Davies. 
^  ultimam  Davies. 

*  The  deus  ex  machlna  introducerl  near  the  end  of  some 
Greek  tragedies,  to  cut  the  knot  of  the  plot,  was  proverbial. 
62 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xix.— xx. 

virtue,  and  knows  with  absolute  certainty  that  heoftheatoms 
will  always  enjoy  pleasures  at  once  consummate  and  and^noJ^by 
/52  everlasting.     XX.  This  is  the  god  whom  we  should  fate. 
call  happy  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term  ;    your 
Stoic  god  seems  to  us  to  be  grievously  overworked. 
If  the  world  itself  is  god,  what  can  be  less  restful  than 
to  revolve  at  incredible  speed  round  the  axis  of  the 
heavens  without  a  single  moment  of  respite  ?    but 
repose  is  an  essential  condition  of  happiness.     If  on 
the  other  hand  some  god  resides  within  the  world  as 
its  governor  and  pilot,  maintaining  the  courses  of  the 
stars,  the  changes  of  the  seasons  and  all  the  ordered 
process  of  creation,  and  keeping  a  watch  on  land  and 
sea  to  guard  the  interests  and  Uves  of  men,  why,  what 
a  bondage  of  irksome  and  laborious  business  is  his  ! 

63  We  for  our  part  deem  happiness  to  consist  in  tran- 
quilHty  of  mind  and  entire  exemption  from  all  duties. 
For  he  who  taught  us  all  the  rest  has  also  taught  U3 
that  the  world  was  made  by  nature,  without  needing 
an  artificer  to  construct  it,  and  that  the  act  of  crea- 
tion,  which  according  to  you  cannot  be  performed 
without  di^ine  sldll,  is  so  easy,  that  nature  ^\ill 
create,  is  creating  and  has  created  worlds  without 
number.  You  on  the  contrary  cannot  see  how  nature 
can  achieve  all  this  without  the  aid  of  some  intelli- 
gence,  and  so,  like  the  tragic  poets,  being  unable  to 
bring  the  plot  of  your  drama  to  a  denouement,  you 

64  have  recourse  to  a  god  "  ;  whose  intervention  you 
assuredly  would  not  require  if  you  would  but  con- 
template  the  measureless  and  boundless  extent  of 
space  that  stretches  in  every  direction,  into  which 
when  the  mind  projects  and  propels  itself,  it  journeys 
onward  far  and  wide  ^^ithout  ever  sighting  any 
margin  or  ultimate  point  where  it  can  stop.     Well 

53 


CICERO 

hac  igitur  inmensitate  latitudinum  longitudinum 
altitudinum  infinita  \as  innumerabilium  volitat  ato- 
morum,  quae  interiecto  inani  cohaerescunt  tamen 
inter  se  et  aliae  alias  adprehendentes  continuantur  ; 
ex  quo  efficiuntur  eae  rerum  formae  et  figurae  quas 
vos  effici  posse  sine  folHbus  et  incudibus  non  putatis, 
itaque  inposuistis  in  cervicibus  nostris  sempiternum 
dominum,  quem  dies  et  noctes  timeremus  :  quis 
enim  non  timeat  omnia  providentem  et  cogitantem 
et    animadvertentem    et    omnia    ad    se    pertinere 

65  putantem  curiosum  et  plenum  negotii  deum  ?  Hinc 
vobis  extitit  primum  illa  fatahs  necessitas  quam 
elixapjxkv-qv  dicitis,  ut  quicquid  accidat  id  ex  aeterna 
veritate  causarumque  continuatione  fluxisse  dicatis. 
Quanti  autem  haec  philosophia  aestimanda  est  cui 
tamquam  anicuhs,  et  iis  quidem  indoctis,  fato  fieri  vi- 
deantur  omnis  ?  Sequitur  iJ.avTiKrj  vestra,  quae  Latine 
divinatio  dicitur,  qua  tanta  inbueremur  super- 
stitione,  si  vos  audire  vellemus,  ut  haruspices,  augures, 

56  harioH,  vates,  coniectores  nobis  essent  colendi.  His 
terroribus  ab  Epicuro  soluti  et  in  hbertatem  vindicati 
nec  metuimus  eos  quos  intellegimus  nec  sibi  fingere 
ullam  molestiam  nec  alteri  quaerere,  et  pie  sancteque 
cohmus  naturam  excellentem  atque  praestantem. 

"  Sed  elatus  studio  vereor  ne  longior  fuerim. 
Erat  autem  difficile  rem  tantam  tamque  praeclaram 
inchoatam  rehnquere  ;  quamquam  non  tam  dicendi 
ratio  mihi  habenda  fuit  quam  audiendi." 

67      XXI.  Tum  Cotta  comiter  ut  solebat :    "  Atqui," 

54 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xx.— xxi. 

then,  in  this  immensity  of  length  and  breadth  and 
height  there  flits  an  infinite  quantity  of  atoms  in- 
numerable,  which  though  separated  by  void  yet 
cohere  together,  and  taking  hold  each  of  another  form 
unions  wherefrom  are  created  those  shapes  and  forms 
of  things  which  you  think  cannot  be  created  without 
the  aid  of  bellows  and  anvils,  and  so  have  saddled  us 
with  an  eternal  master,  whom  day  and  night  we  are 
to  fear  ;  for  who  would  not  fear  a  prying  busybody  of  a 
god,  who  foresees  and  thinks  of  and  notices  all  things, 

5  and  deems  that  everything  is  his  concern  ?  An  out- 
come  of  this  theology  was  first  of  all  your  doctrine  of 
Necessity  or  Fate,  heimarmene,  as  you  termed  it,  the 
theory  that  every  event  is  the  result  of  an  eternal 
truth  and  an  unbroken  sequence  of  causation.  But 
what  value  can  be  assigned  to  a  philosophy  which 
thinks  that  everything  happens  by  fate  ?  it  is  a  belief 
for  old  women,  and  ignorant  old  women  at  that. 
And  next  follows  your  doctrine  of  mantike,  or  Divina- 
tion,  which  would  so  steep  us  in  superstition,  if  we 
consented  to  hsten  to  you,  that  we  should  be  the 
devotees    of    soothsayers,    augurs,    oracle-mongers, 

6  seers  and  interpreters  of  dreams.  But  Epicurus  has 
set  us  free  from  superstitious  terrors  and  dehvered  us 
out  of  capti\dty,  so  that  we  have  no  fear  of  beings 
who,  we  know,  create  no  trouble  for  themselves  and 
seek  to  cause  none  to  others,  while  we  worship  \\\\h. 
pious  reverence  the  transcendent  majesty  of  nature. 

"  But  I  fear  that  enthusiasm  for  my  subject  has 
made  me  prolix.  It  was  difficult  however  to  leave 
80  vast  and  splendid  a  theme  unfinished,  although 
really  it  was  not  my  business  to  be  a  speaker  so 
much  as  a  Hstener." 

7  XXI.  Then  Cotta  took  up  the  discussion.    "  Well, 

55 


CICERO 

inquit,  "  Vellei,  nisi  tu  aliquid  dixisses,  nihil  sane  ex 
me  quidem  audire  potuisses.  Mihi  enim  non  tam 
facile  in  mentem  venire  solet  quare  verum  sit  aliquid 
quam  quare  falsum  ;  idque  cum  saepe  tum  cum  te 
audirem  paulo  ante  contigit.  Roges  me  qualem 
naturam  deorum  esse  ducam,  nihil  fortasse  respon- 
deam  ;  quaeras  putemne  talem  esse  qualis  modo  a 
te  sit  exposita,  nihil  dicam  mihi  videri  minus.  Sed 
ante  quam  adgrediar  ad  ea  quae  a  te  disputata  sunt, 

68  de  te  ipso  dicam  quid  sentiam.  Saepe  enim  de  [L. 
Crasso]^  famihari  illo  tuo  videor  audisse  cum  te  togatis 
omnibus  sine  dubio  anteferret,^  paucos  tecum  Epi- 
cureos  e  Graecia  compararet ;  sed  quod  ab  eo  te 
mirifice  dihgi  intellegebam,  arbitrabar  illum  propter 
benivolentiam  uberius  id  dicere.  Ego  autem,  etsi 
vereor  laudare  praesentem,  iudico  tamen  de  re 
obscura  atque  difficili  a  te  dictum  esse  dilucide,  neque 
sententiis  solum  copiose  sed  verbis  etiam  ornatius 

69  quam  solent  vestri.  Zenonem,  quem  Philo  noster 
coryphaeum  appellare  Epicureorum  solebat,  cimi 
Athenis  essem  audiebam  frequenter,  et  quidem  ipso 
auctore  Philone — credo  ut  faciUus  iudicarem  quam 
illa  bene  refellerentur  cum  a  principe  Epicureorum 
accepissem  quem  ad  modum  dicerentur.  Non  igitur 
ille  ut  plerique,  sed  isto  modo  ut  tu,  distincte  graviter 

^  fL.  Crasso]  om.  A  :  nomen  Epkurei  ctdusdam  excidisse 
suspicatur  Mayor.  ^  anteferret  et  dett. 

"  This  name  is  inserted  by  some  mss.,  but  Crassus  in  JDe 
oratore,  iii.  77  f.,  is  made  to  disclaim  any  special  knowledge 
of  philosophy.  Probably  the  nanie  of  some  philosopher 
resident  in  Velleius's  house  has  been  lost. 

56 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxi. 

Velleius,"  he  rejoined,  with  his  usual  suavity,  "  unless  Epicarean 
you  had  stated  a  case,  you  certainly  would  have  had  demo?5hed 
no  chance  of  hearing  anything  from  me.     I  always  ^J  Cotta 
find  it  much  easier  to  think  of  arguments  to  prove       '~^" 
a   thing  false   than   to   prove   it   true.     This   often 
happens  to  me,  and  did  so  just  now  while  I  was 
hstening  to  you.     Ask  me  what  I  think  that  the 
divine  nature  is  hke,  and  very  probably  I  shall  make 
no  reply  ;  but  inquire  whether  I  beheve  that  it  re- 
sembles  the  description  of  it  which  you  have  just 
given,  and  I  shall  say  that  nothing  seems  to  me  less 
likely.    But  before  proceeding  to  examine  your  argu- 

58  ments,  I  v,n.\l  give  my  opinion  of  yourself.     I  fancy  He  compu- 
I   have   often   heard   that   friend   of  yours   [Lucius  ™^"^ 
Crassus]  °  declare  that  of  all  the  Roman  adherents  of 
Epicureanism   he   placed   you   unquestionably   first, 

and  that  few  of  those  from  Greece  could  be  ranked 
beside  you  ;  but  knowing  his  extraordinary  esteem 
for  you,  I  imagined  that  he  was  speaking  with  the 
partiahty  of  a  friend.  I  myself  however,  though  re- 
luctant  to  praise  you  to  your  face,  must  nevertheless 
pronounce  that  your  exposition  of  an  obscure  and 
difficult  theme  has  been  most  illuminating,  and  not 
only  exhaustive  in  its  treatment  of  the  subject,  but 
also  graced  with  a  charm  of  style  not  common  in 

59  your  school.  ¥,  hen  at  Athens,  I  frequently  attended 
the  discourses  of  Zeno,  whom  our  friend  Philo  used 
to  call  the  leader  of  the  Epicurean  choir  ;  in  fact  it 
was  Philo  who  suggested  that  I  should  go  to  him — 
no  doubt  in  order  that  I  might  be  better  able  to 
judge  how  completely  the  Epicurean  doctrine  may 
be  refuted  when  I  had  heard  an  exposition  of  it  from 
the  head  of  the  school.  Now  Zeno,  unhke  most 
Epicureans,  had  a  style  as  clear,  cogent  and  elegant 

57 


CICERO 

ornate.  Sed  quod  in  illo  mihi  usu  saepe  venit,  idem 
modo  cum  te  audirem  accidebat,  ut  moleste  ferrem 
tantum  ingenium  (bona  venia  me  audies)  in  tam 
leves,  ne  dicam  in  tam  ineptas  sententias  incidisse. 

60  Nec  ego  nunc  ipse  aliquid  adferam  melius.  Ut  enim 
modo  dixi,  omnibus  fere  in  rebus  sed  maxime  in 
physicis  quid  non  sit  citius  quam  quid  sit  dixerim. 
XXII.  Roges  me  quid  aut  quale  sit  deus,  auctore 
utar  Simonide,  de  quo  cum  quaesivisset  hoc  idem 
tyrannus  Hiero,  deliberandi  sibi  unum  diem  postu- 
lavit ;  cum  idem  ex  eo  postridie  quaereret,  biduum 
petivit ;  cum  saepius  dupHcaret  numerum  dierum 
admiransque  Hiero  requireret  cur  ita  faceret,  '  Quia 
quanto  diutius  considero,'  inquit,  *  tanto  mihi  res 
videtur  obscurior.'  Sed  Simoniden  arbitror  (non 
enim  poeta  solum  suavis  verum  etiam  ceteroqui  doctus 
sapiensque  traditur)  quia  multa  venirent  in  mentem 
acuta  atque  subtiha,  dubitantem  quid  eorum  esset 

61  verissimum  desperasse  omnem  veritatem.  Epicurus 
vero  tuus  (nam  cum  illo  malo  disserere  quam  tecum) 
quid  dixit^  quod  non  modo  philosophia  dignum  esset 
sed  mediocri  prudentia  ? 

**  Quaeritur  primum  in  ea  quaestione  quae  est  de 
natura  deorum,  sintne  di  necne  sint.  *  Difficile  est 
negare.*    Credo  si  in  contione  quaeratur,  sed  in  huius 

^  dixit  {vel  sit  citm  dett.,  pro  esset)  Lamhinus  :  dicit. 
58 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxi.— xxii. 

as  your  o^vn.  But  what  often  occurred  to  me  in  his 
case  happened  just  now  while  I  was  Hstening  to 
you  :  I  felt  annoyed  that  talents  so  considerable 
should  have  chanced  to  select  (if  you  will  forgive  my 
saying  it)  so  trivial,  not  to  say  so  stupid,  a  set  of 

60  doctrines.  Not  that  I  propose  at  the  moment  to 
contribute  something  better  of  my  own.     As  I  said 

just  now,  in  almost  all  subjects,  but  especially  in  Cotta'» 
natural  philosophy,  I  am  more  ready  to  say  wliat  is  be^crj^^^ 
not  true  than  what  is.     XXII.  Inquire  of  me  as  to  notcon- 
the  being  and  nature  of  god,  and  I  shall  follow  the  ^^'^*^^^®* 
example  of  Simonides,  who  having  the  same  ques- 
tion  put  to  him  by  the  great  Hiero,  requested  a 
day's  grace  for  consideration  ;  next  day,  when  Hiero 
repeated  the  question,  he  asked  for  two  days,  and  so 
went  on  several  times  multiplying  the  number  of 
days  by  two  ;    and  when  Hiero  in  surprise  asked 
why  he  did  so,  he  repHed,  *  Because  the  longer  I 
dehberate  the  more  obscure  the  matter  seems  to  me.' 
But  Simonides  is  recorded  to  have  been  not  only  a 
charming  poet  but  also  a  man  of  learning  and  wisdom 
in  other  fields,  and  I  suppose  that  so  many  acute 
and  subtle  ideas  came  into  his  mind  that  he  could 
not  decide  which  of  them  was  truest,  and  therefore 

61  despairedof  truthaltogether.  But  as  for  your  master 
Epicurus  (for  I  prefer  to  join  issue  with  him  rather 
than  wdth  yourself),  which  of  his  utterances  is,  I  do 
not  say  worthy  of  philosophy,  but  compatible  with 
ordinary  common  sense  ? 

"  In  an  inquiry  as  to  the  nature  of  the  gods,  the 
first  question  that  we  ask  is,  do  the  gods  exist  or  do 
they  not  ?  *  It  is  difficult  to  deny  their  existence.' 
No  doubt  it  would  be  if  the  question  were  to  be 
asked  in  a  pubHc  assembly,  but  in  private  conversa- 

5.9 


CICERO 

modi  sermone  et  consessu  facillimum.  Itaque  ego 
ipse  pontifex,  qui  caerimonias  religionesque  publicas 
sanctissime  tuendas  arbitror,  is  hoc  quod  primum 
est,  esse  deos,  persuaderi  mihi  non  opinione  solum  sed 
etiam  ad  veritatem  plane  velim.  Multa  enim  occur- 
runt  quae  contm^bent,  ut  interdum  nulh  esse  videan- 

32  tur.  Sed  vide  quam  tecum  agam  Hberahter  :  quae 
communia  sunt  vobis  cum  ceteris  philosophis  non 
attingam,  ut  hoc  ipsum  ;  placet  enim  omnibus  fere 
mihique  ipsi  in  primis  deos  esse,  itaque  non  pugno. 
Rationem  tamen  eam  quae  a  te  adfertur  non  satis 
firmam  puto.  XXIII.  Quod  enim  omnium  gentium 
generumque  hominibus  ita  videretur,  id  satis  magnum 
argumentum  esse  dixisti  cur  esse  deos  confiteremur. 
Quod  cum  leve  per  se  tum  etiam  falsum  est.  Primum 
enim  unde  tibi  notae  sunt  opiniones  nationum  ?  Equi- 
dem  arbitror  multas  esse  gentes  sic  imnanitate  effe- 

63  ratas  ut  apud  eas  nulla  suspicio  deorum  sit.  Quid, 
Diagoras,  a$€os  qui  dictus  est,  posteaque  Theodorus 
nonne  aperte  deorum  naturam  sustulerunt  }  Nam  Ab- 
derites  quidem  Protagoras,  cuius  a  te  modo  mentio 
facta  est,  sophistes  temporibus  ilHs  vel  maximus,  cum 
in  principio  Hbri  sic  posuisset,  *  De  divis,  neque  ut 
sint  neque  ut  non  sint,  habeo  dicere,'  Atheniensium 
iussu  urbe  atque  agro  est  exterminatus  Hbrique  eius 
in  contione  combusti ;    ex   quo   equidem   existimo 


•  Cicero  a])pears  to  mistranslate  the  Greek  irepl  ixh  dewv 
ovK  ix'^   eiohaL    oHd'    wj    eialv   oiO'  ws    ovk  eiaiv  Diog.  L.  ix« 
51  ('  either  thcU  they  exist  or  that  they  do  not '). 
60 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxii.— xxiii. 

tion  and  in  a  conipany  like  the  prescnt  it  is  perfectly 
easy.  This  being  so,  I,  who  am  a  high  priest,  and 
who  hold  it  to  be  a  duty  most  solemnly  to  maintain 
the  rights  and  doctrines  of  the  estabhshed  rehgion, 
should  be  glad  to  be  convinccd  of  this  fundamental 
tenet  of  the  divine  existence,  not  as  an  article  of 
faith  merely  but  as  an  ascertained  fact.  For  many 
disturbing  reflections  occur  to  my  mind,  which  some- 
times  make  me  think  that  there  are  no  gods  at  all. 

l  But  mark  how  generously  I  deal  with  you.     I  will 
not  attack  those  tenets  which  are  shared  by  your 
school  with  all  other  philosophers — for  example  the 
one  in  question,  since  almost  all  men,  and  I  myself 
no  less  than  any  other,  beUeve  that  the  gods  exist, 
and  this   accordingly   I   do  not  challenge.     At  the 
same  time  I  doubt  the  adequacy  of  the  argument 
which  you  adduce  to  prove  it.    XXIII.  You  said  that  (i)  Argu- 
a  sufficient  reason  for  our  admitting  that  the  gods  universai 
exist  was  the  fact  that  all  the  nations  and  races  of  conseut 
mankind  beheve  it.     But  this  argument  is  both  in-  unfoiinded 
conclusive  and  untrue.     In  the  first  place,  how  do  ^^  ^^°^ 
you  know  what  foreign  races  believe  ?     For  my  part 
I  think  that  there  are  many  nations  so  unciviHzed 
and  barbarous  as  to  have  no  notion  of  any  gods  at 

3  all.  Again,  did  not  Diagoras,  called  the  Atheist, 
and  later  Theodorus  openly  deny  the  divine  exist- 
ence  ?  Since  as  for  Protagoras  of  Abdera,  the  greatest 
sophist  of  that  age,  to  whom  you  just  now  alluded, 
for  beginning  a  book  Mith  the  words  *  About  the 
gods  I  am  unable  to  affirm  either  how  °  they  exist  or 
how  they  do  not  exist,'  he  was  sentenced  by  a  decree 
of  the  Athenian  assembly  to  be  banished  from  the 
city  and  from  the  country,  and  to  have  his  books 
burnt  in  the  market-place  :  an  example  that  I  can 
^  61 


CICERO 

tardiores  ad  hanc  sententiam  profitendam  multos  esse 
factos,  quippe  cum  poenam  ne  dubitatio  quidem 
effugere  potuisset.  Quid  de  sacrilegis,  quid  de  impiis 
periurisque  dicemus  ? 

Tubulus  si  Lucius  umquam, 
si  Lupus  aut  Carbo  aut^  Neptuni  filius, 

ut  ait  Lucilius,  putasset  esse  deos,  tam  periurus  aut 

64  tam  inpurus  fuisset  ?  Non  est  igitur  tam  explorata 
ista  ratio  ad  id  quod  vultis  confirmandum  quam 
videtur.  Sed  quia  commune  hoc  est  argumentum 
aliorum  etiam  philosophorum,  omittam  hoc  tempore ; 
ad  vestra  propria  venire  malo. 

65  "  Concedo  esse  deos  ;  doce  me  igitur  unde  sint,  ubi 
sint,  quales  sint  corpore  animo  vita  ;  haec  enim  scire 
desidero.  Abuteris  ad  omnia  atomorum  regno  et 
licentia ;  hinc  quodcumque  in  solum  venit,  ut  dicitur, 
effingis  atque  efficis.  Quae  primum  nullae  sunt.  Nihil 
est  enim  .  .  .^  quod  vacet  corpore  ;  corporibus  autem 
omnis  obsidetur  locus;  ita  nullum  inane,  nihil  esse 

66  individuum  potest.  XXIV.  Haec  ego  nunc  physi- 
corum  oracula  fundo,  vera  an  falsa  nescio,  sed  veri 
tamen  simihora  quam  vestra.  Ista  enim  flagitia 
Democriti  sive  etiam  ante  Leucippi,  esse  corpuscula 

^  aut  secl.  Jos.  Scaliger.  *  lacunam  Lamhinus. 

■  Proverbial  for  a  rough,  savage  character. 

^  Or  perhaps  '  that  meets  the  loot.' 

"  A  considerable   number  of  words  seem  to  have  been 
lost  here. 
62 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxiii.— xxiv. 

well  believe  has  discouraged  niany  people  since  from 
professing  atheism,  since  the  mcre  expression  of 
doubt  did  not  succeed  in  escaping  punishment.  WTiat 
are  we  to  say  about  the  men  guilty  of  sacrilege  or 
impiety  or  perjury  ? 

Suppose  that  ever  Lucius  Tubulus, 
Lupus  or  Carbo,  or  some  son  of  Neptune," 

as  LuciHus  has  it,  had  believed  in  the  gods,  would 
14  he  have  been  such  a  perjurer  and  scoundrel  ?     We 
find  then  that  your  argument  is  not  so  well-estab- 
lished  a  proof  of  the  view  which  you  uphold  as  you 
imagine  it  to  be.     Still,  as  it  is  a  hne  of  reasoning 
that  is  followed  by  other  philosophers  as  well,  I  will 
pass  it  over  for  the   present,   and   turn  rather  to 
doctrines  pecuHar  to  your  school. 
16      "I  grant  the  existence  of  the  gods  :   do  you  then  (2)  Argu- 
teach   me   their   orio-in,   their   dweUing-place,   their  atomism 
bodily  and  spiritual  nature,  their  mode  of  Hfe  ;    for  l^^^^^^  '• 
these  are  the  things  which  I  want  to  know.     In  regard  doctrine 
to  all  of  them  you  make  great  play  with  the  lawless  °PP°'^.^  ^ 
domination  of  the  atoms  ;    from  these  you  construct 
and  create  everything  that  comes  upon  the  ground,^ 
as  they  say.     Now  in  the  first  place,  there  are  no 
such  things  as  atoms.     For  there  is  nothing  .  .  .  ^  in- 
corporeal,  but  all  space  is  fiUed  with  material  bodies  ; 
hence  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  void,  and  no  such 
56  thing  as  an  indivisible  body.     XXIV.  In  all  of  this 
I  speak  for  the  time  being  only  as  the  mouthpiece 
of  our  oracles  of  natural  philosophy  ;   whether  their 
utterances  are  true  or  false  I  do  not  know,  but  at  all 
events  they  are  more  probable  than  those  of  your 
school.     As  for  the  outrageous  doctrines  of  Demo- 
critus,  or  perhaps  of  his  predecessor  Leueippus,  that 

63 


CICERO 

quaedam^  levia,  alia  aspera,  rotunda  alia,  partim 
autem  angulata,  curvata^  quaedam  et  quasi  ad- 
unca,  ex  his  effectum  esse  caelum  atque  terram  nuUa 
cogente  natura  sed  concursu  quodam  fortuito — hanc 
tu  opinionem,  C.  Vellei,  usque  ad  hanc  aetatem  per- 
duxisti,  priusque  te  quis  de  omni  vitae  statu  quam 
de  ista  auctoritate  deiecerit ;  ante  enim  iudicasti 
Epicureum  te  esse  oportere  quam  ista  cognovisti  : 
ita  necesse  fuit  aut  haec  flagitia  concipere  animo  aut 

67  susceptae  philosophiae  nomen  amittere.  Quid  enim 
mereas  ut  Epicureus  esse  desinas  ?  *  Nihil  equidem  ' 
inquis  '  ut  rationem  vitae  beatae  veritatemque 
deseram.'  Ista  igitur  est  veritas?  Nam  de  vita 
beata  nihil  repugno,  quam  tu  ne  in  deo  quidem  esse 
censes  nisi  plane  otio  langueat.  Sed  ubi  est  veritas  ? 
In  mundis  credo  innumerabilibus  omnibus  minimis 
temporum  punctis  aUis  nascentibus  ahis  cadentibus  ; 
an  in  individuis  corpusculis  tam  praeclara  opera 
nulla  moderante  natura,  nulla  ratione  fingentibus? 
Sed  obhtus  Uberahtatis  meae  qua  tecum  paulo  ante 
uti  coeperam,  plura  complector.  Concedam  igitur  ex 
individuis  constare  omnia :    quid  ad  rem  ?    deorum 

68  enim  natura  quaeritur.  Sint  sane  ex  atomis  ;  non 
igitur  aeterni.  Quod  enim  ex  atomis,  id  natum 
aliquando  est  ;    si  nati,^  nulli  dei  ante  quam  nati ; 

^  quaedam,  <alia>  Reid. 

*  curvata  B  :  firamata  A,  hamata  edd. 

3  nati  deft.,  natum  A,  B. 

64 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxiv. 

there  are  cerlain  miniite  particles,  some  smooth, 
others  rough,  some  round,  some  angular,  some  curved 
or  hook-shaped,  and  that  heaven  and  earth  were 
created  from  these,  not  by  compulsion  of  any  natural 
law  but  by  a  sort  of  accidental  coUiding — this  is  the 
behef  to  which  you,  Gaius  Velleius,  have  clung  all 
your  hfe  long,  and  it  would  be  easier  to  make  you 
alter  all  your  principles  of  conduct  than  abandon  the 
teachings  of  your  master ;  for  you  made  up  your 
mind  that  Epicureanism  claimed  your  allegiance 
before  you  learned  these  doctrines :  so  that  you  were 
faced  with  the  alternative  of  eitlier  accepting  tliese 
outrageous  notions  or  surrendering  the  title  of  the 
17  school  of  your  adoption.  For  what  would  you 
take  to  cease  to  be  an  Epicurean  ?  '  For  no  con- 
sideration,'  you  reply, '  would  I  forsake  the  principles 
of  happiness  and  the  truth.'  Then  is  Epicureanism 
the  truth  ?  For  as  to  happiness  I  don't  join  issue,  since 
in  your  view  even  divine  happiness  involves  being 
bored  to  death  with  idleness.  But  where  is  the  truth 
to  be  found  ?  I  suppose  in  an  infinite  number  of 
worlds,  some  coming  to  birth  and  others  hurled  into 
ruin  at  every  minutest  moment  of  time  ?  or  in  the 
indivisible  particles  that  produce  all  the  marvels  of 
creation  ^Wthout  any  controlhng  nature  or  reason  ? 
But  I  am  forffettinsr  the  indul^ence  which  I  be^^an  to 

o  o  o  o 

show  you  just  now,  and  am  taking  too  wide  a  range. 
I  will  grant  therefore  that  everything  is  made  out  of 
indivisible  bodies  ;   but  this  takes  us  no  farther,  for 
)8  we  are  trying  to  discover  the  nature  of  the  gods.     Sup-  inconsi.nent 
pose  we  allow  that  the  gods  are  made  of  atoms  :  then  y>th  divine 
it  follows  that  they  are  not  eternal.    For  what  is  made  !!'}'."  ^ 
of  atoms  came  into  existence  at  some  time  ;   but  ir' 
the  gods  came  into  existence,  before  tliey  came  into 

65 


CICERO 

et  si  ortus  est  deorum,  interitus  sit  necesse  est,  ut 
tu  paulo  ante  de  Platonis  mundo  disputabas.      Ubi 
igitur   illud  vestrum  beatum    et    aeternum,  quibus 
duobus  verbis  significatis  deum  ?  quod  cum  efficere 
vultis,  in  dumeta  conrepitis  ;    ita  enim  dicebas,  non 
corpus  esse  in  deo  sed  quasi  corpus,  nec  sanguinem 
sed  tamquam  sanguinem. 
69      XXV.  "  Hoc  persaepe  facitis,  ut  cum  aliquid  non 
veri  simile  dicatis  et  effugere  reprehensionem  velitis 
adferatis  aliquid  quod  omnino  ne  fieri  quidem  possit, 
ut  satius  fuerit  illud  ipsum  de  quo  ambigebatur  con- 
cedere  quam  tam  inpudenter  resistere.    Velut  Epicu- 
rus  cum  \dderet.  si  atomi  ferrentur  in  locum  inferio- 
rem  suopte  pondere,  nihil  fore  in  nostra  potestate, 
quod  esset  earum  motus  certus  et  necessarius,  invenit 
quo   modo    necessitatem    effugeret,    quod    videhcet 
Democritum  fugerat :  ait  atomum,  cum  pondere  et 
gravitate  directo  deorsus  feratur,  dechnare  paululum. 
70  Hoc  dicere  turpius  est  quam  illud  quod  vult  non  posse 
defendere.     Idem  facit  contra  dialecticos;  a  quibus 
cum  traditum  sit  in  omnibus  diiunctionibus  in  quibus 
'  aut  etiam  aut  non  '  poneretur  alterum  utrum  esse 
verum,  pertimuit  ne  si  concessum  esset  huius  modi 
aliquid   '  aut   vivet   cras    aut    non   vivet   Epicurus,' 
alterutrum  fieret  necessarium :   totum  hoc  *  aut  etiam 
«  Above,  §  49, 

66 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxiv.— xxv. 

existence  there  were  no  gods  ;  and  if  the  gods  had 
a  beginning,  they  niust  also  perish,  as  you  were 
arguing  a  Uttle  time  ago  about  the  world  as  conceived 
by  Plato.  Where  then  do  we  find  that  happiness  and 
that  eternity  which  in  your  system  are  the  two  catch- 
words  that  denote  divinity  ?  When  you  wish  to 
make  this  out,  you  take  cover  in  a  thicket  of  jargon  ; 
you  gave  us  the  formula  just  now  ° — God  has  not 
body  but  a  semblance  of  body,  not  blood  but  a  kind 
of  blood. 
9  XXV.  "  This  is  a  very  common  practice  with  your 
school.  You  advance  a  paradox,  and  then,  when  you 
want  to  escape  censure,  you  adduce  in  support  of  it 
some  absolute  impossibihty  ;  so  that  you  would  have 
done  better  to  abandon  the  point  in  dispute  rather 
than  to  offer  so  shameless  a  defence.  For  instance,  Doctrine  oi 
Epicurus  saw  that  if  the  atoms  travelled  downwards  ^bsord^»"'* 
by  their  own  weight,  we  should  have  no  freedom  of 
the  will,  since  the  motion  of  the  atoms  would  be  deter- 
mined  by  necessity.  He  therefore  invented  a  device 
to  escape  from  determinism  (the  point  had  apparently 
escaped  the  notice  of  Democritus)  :  he  said  that  the 
atom  while  travelUng  verticaUy  downward  by  the 
force  of  gravity  makes  a  very  sUght  swerve  to  one 
ro  side.     This  defence  discredits  him  more  than  if  he 

had  had  to  abandon  his  original  position.  He  does  andsols^ 
the  same  in  his  battle  with  the  logicians.  Their  wjc"'^^^'''' 
accepted  doctrine  is  that  in  every  disjunctive  pro- 
position  of  the  form  '  so-and-so  either  is  or  is  not,'  one 
of  the  two  alternatives  must  be  true.  Epicurus  took 
alarm  ;  if  such  a  proposition  as  '  Epicurus  either  will 
or  will  not  be  aUve  to-morrow'  were  granted,  one  or 
other  alternative  would  be  necessary.  Accordincfly 
he  denied  the  necessity  of  a  disjunctive  proposition 

67 


CICERO 

aut  non  *  negavit  esse  necessarium  ;  quo  quid  dici 
potuit  obtusius  ?  Urguebat  Arcesilas  Zenonem,  cum 
ipse  falsa  omnia  diceret  quae  sensibus  viderentur, 
Zenon  autem  nonnulla  visa  esse  falsa,  non  omnia  ; 
timuit  Epicurus  ne  si  unum  visum  esset  falsum 
nullum  esset  verum  :  omnis  sensus  veri  nuntios  dixit 
esse.  Nihil  horum  nimis  callide^ ;  graviorem  enim 
plagam  accipiebat  ut  leviorem  repelleret. 

71  "  Idem  facit  in  natura  deorum ;  dum  individuorum 
corporum  concretionem  fugit  ne  interitus  et  dissipatio 
consequatur,  negat  esse  corpus  deorum  sed  tamquam 
corpus,  nec  sanguinem  sed  tamquam  sanguinem. 
XXVI.  Mirabile  videtur  quod  non  rideat  haruspex 
cum  haruspicem  viderit ;  hoc  mirabiUus,  quod^  vos 
inter  vos  risum  tenere  potestis.^  '  Non  est  corpus 
sed  quasi  corpus  '  :  hoc  intellegerem  quale  esset 
si  in  ceris*  fingeretur  aut  fictilibus  figuris  ;  in  deo 
quid  sit  quasi  corpus  aut  quid  sit  quasi  sanguis 
intellegere  non  possum.  Ne  tu  quidem,  Vellei,  sed 
non  vis  fateri. 

72  *'  Ista  enim  a  vobis  quasi  dictata  redduntur  quae 
Epicurus  oscitans  halucinatus  est,  cum  quidem 
gloriaretur,  ut  videmus  in  scriptis,  se  magistrum 
habuisse  nuUum.  Quod  etiam^  non  praedicanti 
tamen  facile  equidem  crederem,  sicut  mali  aedificii 
domino  glorianti  se  architectum  non  habuisse ;  nihil 
enim  olet  ex  Academia,  nihil  ex  Lycio,  nihil  ne 
e  puerilibus  quidem  discipHnis.     Xenocraten  audire 

^  nimis  callide  Allen :  fi  callide,  nisi  callide  dett.^  nisi  ualde 
A,B. 

2  quod  det.:  quam  (quam  <ut>  .  .  .  possitis  Plasberg). 
^  potestis  ed.  :  possitis.  *  cereis  dett. 

^  etiam  dett. :  et  A,  B,  ei  Klotz. 


Q^ 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxv.— xxvi. 

altogether.  Now  what  could  be  stupider  than  that  ? 
Arcesilas  used  to  attack  Zeno  because,  whereas  he 
himself  said  that  all  sense-presentations  are  false, 
Zeno  said  that  some  were  false,  but  not  all.  Epicurus 
feared  that  if  a  single  sensation  were  admitted  to  be 
false,  none  would  be  true  :  he  therefore  said  that  all 
the  senses  give  a  true  report.  In  none  of  these  cases 
did  he  behave  very  cleverly,  for  to  parry  a  hghter  blow 
he  laid  himself  open  to  one  that  was  more  severe. 

"  He  does  the  same  as  regards  the  nature  of  the  (3)  Anthro- 
gods.     In  his  desire  to  avoid  the  assumption  of  a  cSticSd'^"" 
dense   cluster   of  atoms,   which   would   involve   the  <^§§  ^-102). 
possibiUty  of  destruction  and  dissipation,  he  says  that  corporeal 
the  gods  have  not  a  body  but  a  semblance  of  body,  f^^j'^^  ^.^ 
and  not  blood  but  a  semblance  of  blood.     XXVI.  It  gibie. 
is  thought  surprising  that  an  augur  can  see  an  augur 
without  smihng  ;    but  it  is  more  surprising  that  you 
Epicureans  keep  a  grave  face  when  by  yourselves. 
*  It  is  not  body  but  a  semblance  of  body.'     I  could 
understand  what  this  supposition  meant  if  it  related 
to  waxen  ima^es  or  fio^ures  of  earthenware.  but  what 
'  a  semblance  of  body  '  or  '  a  semblance  of  blood  * 
may  mean  in  the  case  of  god,  I  cannot  understand  ; 
nor  can  you  either,  \"elleius,  only  you  won't  admit  it. 

"  The  fact  is  that  you  people  merely  repeat  by  rote 
the  idle  vapourings  that  Epicurus  uttered  when  half 
asleep  ;  for,  as  we  read  in  his  MTitings,  he  boasted 
that  he  had  never  had  a  teacher.  This  I  for  my  part 
could  well  believe,  even  if  he  did  not  proclaim  it,  just 
as  I  believe  the  owner  of  an  ill-built  house  when  he 
boasts  that  he  did  not  employ  an  architect  !  He 
shows  not  the  faintest  trace  of  the  Academy  or  the 
Lyceum,  or  even  of  the  ordinary  schoolboy  studies. 
He  might  have  heard  Xenocrates — by  heaven,  what 

69 


CICERO 

potuit  (quem  \-irum,  di  immortales)  ;  et  sunt  qui 
putent  audisse,  ipse  non  vult — credo  plus  nemini. 
Pamphilum  quendam  Platonis  auditorem  ait  a  se 
Sami  auditum  (ibi  enim  adulescens  habitabat  cum 
patre  et  fratribus,  quod  in  eam^  pater  eius  Neocles 
agripeta  venerat,   sed   cum   agellus   eum  non  satis 

73  aleret,  ut  opinor  ludi  magister  fuit)  ;  sed  hunc 
Platonicum  mirifice  contemnit  Epicurus  ;  ita  metuit 
ne  quid  umquam  didicisse  videatur.  In  Nausiphane 
Democriteo  tenetur  ;  quem  cum  a  se  non  neget 
auditum,  vexat  tamen  omnibus  contumeUis  ;  atqui 
si  haec  Democritea  non  audisset,  quid  audierat  ? 
quid  enim  est^  in  physicis  Epicuri  non  a  Democrito  ? 
Nam  etsi  quaedam  commutavit,  ut  quod  paulo  ante 
de  inchnatione  atomorum  dixi,  tamen  pleraque  dicit 
eadem,  atomos  inane  imagines,  infinitatem  locorum 
innumerabihtatemque  mundorum,  eorum  ortus  in- 
teritus,  omnia  fere  quibus  naturae  ratio  continetur. 

74  "Nuncistuc  '  quasi  corpus  '  et  '  quasi  sanguinem* 
quid  intellegis  ?  Ego  enim  te  scire  ista  mehus 
quam  me  non  fateor  solum  sed  etiam  facile  patior  ; 
cum  quidem'  semel  dicta  sunt,  quid  est  quod  Velleius 
intellegere  possit,  Cotta  non  possit  ?  Itaque  corpus 
quid  sit,  sanguis  quid  sit  intellego,  quasi  corpus  et 
quasi  sanguis  quid  sit  nullo  prorsus  modo  intellego. 
Neque  tu  me  celas  ut  Pythagoras  solebat  ahenos, 

^  eam  <  insulam  >  Plasberg. 
•  enim  est  ed.  :  est  ^,  B^  enim  dett.  '  autem  ?  ed. 

70 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxvi. 

a  master  ! — and  some  people  think  that  he  did,  but  he 

himself  denies  it,  and  he  ought  to  know  !  He  states 
that  he  heard  a  certain  Pamphilus,  a  pupil  of  Plato,  at 
Samos  (where  he  resided  in  his  youth  with  his  father 
and  brother — his  father  Neocles  had  gone  there  to 
takeup  landjbut  faihng  tomakeahvingout  of  hisfarm, 

rs  I  beheve  kept  a  school).  However  Epicurus  pours 
endless  scorn  on  this  Platonist,  so  afraid  is  he  of 
appearing  ever  to  have  learnt  anything  from  a  teacher. 
He  stands  convicted  in  the  case  of  Nausiphanes,  a 
follower  of  Democritus,  whom  he  does  not  deny  he 
heard  lecture,  but  whom  nevertheless  he  assails  with 
every  sort  of  abuse.  Yet  if  he  had  not  heard  from 
him  these  doctrines  of  Democritus,  what  had  he 
heard  ?  for  what  is  there  in  Epicurus's  natural  philo- 
sophy  that  does  not  come  from  Democritus  ?  Since 
even  if  he  introduced  some  alterations,  for  instance 
the  swerve  of  the  atoms,  of  which  I  spoke  just  now, 
yet  most  of  his  system  is  the  same,  the  atoms,  the  void, 
the  images,  the  infinity  of  space,  and  the  countless 
number  of  worlds,  their  births  and  their  destructions, 
in  fact  almost  everything  that  is  comprised  in  natural 
science. 

14c  "  As  to  your  formula  '  a  semblance  of  body  '  and 
*  a  semblance  of  blood,'  what  meaning  do  you  attach 
to  it  ?  That  you  have  a  better  knowledge  of  the 
matter  than  I  have  I  freely  admit,  and  what  is  more, 
am  quite  content  that  this  should  be  so  ;  but  once  it 
is  expressed  in  words,  why  should  one  of  us  be  able 
to  understand  it  and  not  the  other?  Well  then,  I  do 
understand  what  body  is  and  what  blood  is,  but  what 
'  a  semblance  of  body  '  and  '  a  semblance  of  blood  * 
are  I  don't  understand  in  the  very  least.  You  are 
not  trying  to  hide  the  truth  from  me,  as  Pythagoras 

71 


CICERO 

nec  consulto  dicis  occulte  tamquam  Heraclitus,  sed, 
quod    inter    nos    liceat,    ne    tu    quidem    intellegis. 

75  XX\7I.  Illud  \ddeo  pugnare  te,  species  ut  quaedam 
sit  deorum  quae  nihil  concreti  habeat  nihil  soUdi 
nihil  expressi  nihil  eminentis,  sitque  pura  levis 
perlucida.  Dicemus  igitur  idem  quod  in  Venere  Coa  : 
corpus  illud  non  est  sed  simile  corporis,  nec  ille  fusus 
et  candore  mixtus  rubor  sanguis  est  sed  quaedam 
sanguinis  simiHtudo  ;  sic  in  Epicureo  deo  non  res 
sed  simiUtudines  rerum  esse.  Fac  id  quod  ne  inteUegi 
quidem  potest  mihi  esse  persuasum  ;  cedo  mihl 
istorum    adumbratorum    deorum    Uniamenta    atque 

76  formas.  Non  deest  hoc  loco  copia  rationum  quibus 
docere  veUtis  humanas  esse  formas  deorum  ;  primum 
quod  ita  sit  informatum  anticipatumque  menti- 
bus  nostris  ut  homini,  cum  de  deo  cogitet,  forma 
occurrat  humana ;  deinde  quod,  quoniam  rebus 
omnibus  exceUat  natura  divina,  forma  quoque  esse 
pulcherrima  debeat,  nec  esse  humana  uUam  pul- 
chriorem ;  tertiam  rationem  adfertis,  quod  nuUa  in 

77  aUa  figura  domiciUum  mentis  esse  possit.  Primum 
igitur  quidque  considera  quale  sit ;  arripere  enim 
mihi  videmini  quasi  vestro  iure  rem  nuUo  modo 
probabilem.  <  Primum^>  omnium  quis  tam  caecus 
in  contemplandis  rebus  umquam  fuit  ut  non  videret 
species  istas  hominum  conlatas  in  deos  aut  consiUo 

*  Plasberg, 
72 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxvi.— xxvii. 

used  to  hide  it  from  strangcrs,  nor  yet  are  you  speak- 
ing  obscurely  on  purpose  likc  Heraclitus,  but  (to 
speak  candidly  between  ourselves)  you  don't  under- 

75  stand  it  yourself  any  more  than  I  do.  XXVII.  I  am 
aware  that  what  you  maintain  is  that  the  gods  possess 
a  certain  outward  appearance,  which  has  no  firmness 
or  sohdity,  no  definite  shape  or  outhne,  and  which 
is  free  from  gross  admixture,  volatile,  transparent. 
Therefore  we  shall  use  the  same  language  aswe  should 
of  the  Venus  of  Cos  :  her's  is  not  real  flesh  but  the 
hkeness  of  flesh,  and  the  manthng  blush  that  dyes 
her  fair  cheek  is  not  real  blood  but  something  that 
counterfeits  blood  ;  similarly  in  the  god  of  Epicurus 
we  shall  say  that  there  is  no  real  substance  but  some- 
thing  that  counterfeits  substance.  But  assume  that 
I  accept  as  true  a  dogma  that  I  cannot  even  under- 
stand  :    exhibit  to  me,  pray,  the  forms  and  features 

J6  of  your  shadow-deities.  On  this  topic  you  are  at  no 
loss  for  arguments  designed  to  prove  that  the  gods 
have  the  form  of  men  :  first  because  our  minds 
possess  a  preconceived  notion  of  such  a  character  that, 
when  a  man  thinks  of  god,  it  is  the  human  form  that 
presents  itself  to  him  ;  secondly,  because  inasmuch 
as  the  divine  nature  surpasses  all  other  things,  the 
divine  form  also  must  needs  be  the  most  beautiful, 
and  no  form  is  more  beautiful  than  that  of  man. 
The  third  reason  you  advance  is  that  no  other  shape 

n  is  capable  of  being  the  abode  of  intelhgence.     Well  Anthropo- 
then,  take  these  arguments  one  by  one  and  consider  do^ctrines 
what  they  amount  to  ;  for  in  my  view  they  are  based  '^"e  to 
on  an  arbitrary  and  quite  inadmissible  assumption  on  superstition 
your  part.     First  of  all,  was  there  ever  any  student  °^  ^ainty. 
so  bhnd  as  not  to  see  that  human  shape  has  been  thus 
assigned  to  the  gods  either  by  the  dehberate  con- 

73 


CICERO 

quodam  sapientium,  quo  facilius  animos  imperitorum 
ad  deorum  cultum  a  vitae  pra^itate  converterent,  aut 
superstitione,  ut  essent  simulacra  quae  venerantes 
deos  ipsos  se  adire  crederent  ?  Auxerunt  autem  haec 
eadem  poetae,  pictores,  opifices ;  erat  enim  non  facile 
agentis  aliquid  et  molientis  deos  in  aliarum  forma- 
rum  imitatione  servare.  Accessit  etiam  ista  opinio 
fortasse  quod  homini  homine  pulchrius  nihil  vide- 
batur.^  Sed  tu  hoc,  physice,  non  vides,  quam  blanda 
conciHatrix  et  quasi  sui  sit  lena  natura  ?  An  putas 
ullam  esse  terra  marique  beluam  quae  non  sui  ge- 
neris  belua  maxime  delectetur  ?  Quod  ni  ita  esset, 
cur  non  gestiret  taurus  equae  contrectatione,  equus 
vaccae  ?  An  tu  aquilam  aut  leonem  aut  delphinum 
ullam  anteferre  censes  figuram  suae  ?  Quid  igitur 
mirum  si  hoc  eodem  modo  homini  natura  praescripsit 
ut  nihil  pulchrius  quam  hominem  putaret  ?  .  .  .  ^ 
eam  esse  causam  cur  deos  hominum  simihs  putaremus? 
78  "  Quid  censes  si  ratio^  esset  in  beluis?  nonne* 
suo  quasque  generi  plurimum  tributuras  fuisse  ? 
XXVIII.  At  mehercule  ego  (dicam  enim  ut  sentio) 
quamvis  amem  ipse  me,  tamen  non  audeo  dicere 
pulchriorem  esse  me  quam  ille  fuerit  taurus  qui  vexit 
Europam  ;  non  enim  hoc  loco  de  ingeniis  aut  de 
orationibus^  nostris  sed  de  specie  figuraque  quaeritur. 
Quodsi    fingere   nobis    et   iungere    formas    veUmus, 

*  videbatur  {vel  videtur)  Schomann  :  videatur. 

2  lacunam  suspic.  Mayor. 

■  oratio  Dum£snil.       *  nonne  ed.  :  non.       ^  rationibus  ?  ed. 


"  Some  words  appear  to  have  been  lost  here. 
*  Perhaps  the  text  should  be  corrected  to  '  speech.* 
"  Perhaps  the  text  should  be  corrected  to  '  rationaU* 
74 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xx\ii.— xxviii. 

trivance  of  philosophers,  the  better  to  enable  them 
to  turn  the  hearts  of  the  ignorant  from  vicious 
practices  to  the  observance  of  rehgion,  or  by  super- 
stition,  to  supply  images  for  men  to  worship  in  the 
behef  that  in  so  doing  they  had  direct  access  to  the 
divine  presence  ?  These  notions  moreover  have  been 
fostered  by  poets,  painters  and  artificers,  who  found 
it  difficult  to  represent  hving  and  active  deities  in  the 
hkeness  of  any  other  shape  than  that  of  man.  Per- 
haps  also  man's  beUef  in  his  own  superior  beauty,  to 
which  you  referred,  may  have  contributed  to  the 
result.  But  surely  you  as  a  natural  philosopher  are 
aware  what  an  insinuating  go-between  and  pander 
of  her  o-VMi  charms  nature  is  !  Do  you  suppose  that 
there  is  a  single  creature  on  land  or  in  the  sea  which 
does  not  prefer  an  animal  of  its  own  species  to  any 
other  ?  If  this  were  not  so,  why  should  not  a  bull 
desire  to  couple  with  a  mare,  or  a  horse  with  a  cow  ? 
Do  you  imagine  that  an  eagle  or  hon  or  dolphin 
thinks  any  shape  more  beautiful  than  its  own  ?  Is 
it  then  surprising  if  nature  has  hke^-ise  taught  man 
to  think  his  own  species  the  most  beautiful  .  .  .°  that 
this  was  a  reason  why  we  should  think  the  gods 
resemble  man  ? 
78      "  Suppose  animals  possessed  reason,^  do  you  not  Anthropo- 

iT_ .    1       , 1      .      ■  -L  11  1-  •  •  morpbism 

thmk  that  they  would  each  assign  pre-emmence  riero-atnry 
to  their  own  species  ?  XXVIII.  For  my  part  I  !f  r^fi.^t"^Q^ 
protest  (if  I  am  to  say  what  I  think)  that  although 
I  am  not  lacking  in  self-esteem  yet  I  don't  presume 
to  call  myself  more  beautiful  than  the  famous  bull 
on  which  Europa  rode  ;  for  the  question  is  not  here 
of  our  intellectual  and  oratorical  ^  powers  but  of  our 
outward  form  and  aspect.  Indeed  if  we  choose  to 
make  imaginary  combinations  of  shapes,  would  you 

75 


CICERO 

qualis  ille  maritimus  Triton  pingitur,  natantibus 
invehens  beluis  adiunctis  humano  corpori,  nolis 
esse  ?  Difficih  in  loco  versor ;  est  enim  vis  tanta 
naturae   ut   homo   nemo   velit   nisi   hominis   simihs 

79  esse — et  quidem  formica  formicae  ;  sed  tamen  cuius 
hominis  ?  quotus  enim  quisque  formosus  est  ? 
Athenis  cum  essem,  e  gregibus  epheborum  \ix 
singuh  reperiebantur — video  quid  adriseris,  sed 
ita  tamen  se  res  habet.  Deinde  nobis,  qui  con- 
cedentibus  philosophis  antiquis  adulescentuHs  delec- 
tamur,  etiam  vitia  saepe  iucunda  sunt.  *  Naevus  in 
articulo  pueri  delectat '  Alcaeum  ;  at  est  corporis 
macula  naevus  ;  ilh  tamen  hoc  lumen  \-idebatur. 
Q.  Catulus,  huius  collegae  et  famiharis  nostri  pater, 
dilexit  municipem  tuum  Roscium,  in  quem  etiam 
illud  est  eius  : 

constiteram  exorientem  Auroram  forte  salutans, 

cum  subito  a  laeva  Roscius  exoritur. 
pace  mihi  liceat,  caelestes,  dicere  vestra : 

mortalis  visust  pulchrior  esse  deo. 

Huic  deo  pulchrior  ;  at  erat,  sicuti  hodie  est,  perver- 
sissimis  ocuhs  :  quid  refert,  si  hoc  ipsum  salsum  ilU 
et  venustum  videbatur  ? 

80  "  Redeo  ad  deos.  XXIX.  Ecquos  si  non  tam* 
strabones  at  paetulos  esse  arbitramur,  ecquos  naevum 
habere,  ecquos  silos  flaccos  frontones  capitones,  quae 

^  iam  Ileinsius. 
"  The  Latin  is  part  of  a  verse  from  an  unknown  source. 

76 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxviii.— xxix. 

not  like  to  resenible  the  merman  Triton  who  is 
depicted  riding  upon  swimming  monsters  attached 
to  his  man's  body  ?  I  am  on  tickhsh  ground  here, 
for   natural   instinct   is   so   strong   that    every   man 

79  wishes  to  be  Hke  a  man  and  nothing  else.  Yes,  and 
every  ant  hke  an  ant  !  Still,  the  question  is,  hke 
what  man  ?  How  small  a  percentage  of  handsome 
people  there  are  !  When  I  was  at  Athens,  there  was 
scarcely  one  to  be  found  in  each  platoon  of  the  train- 
ing-corps — I  see  why  you  smile,  but  the  fact  is  so 
all  the  same.  Another  point  :  we,  who  with  the 
sanction  of  the  philosophers  of  old  are  fond  of  the 
society  of  young  men,  often  find  even  their  defects 
agreeable.  Alcaeus  '  admires  a  mole  upon  his 
favourite's  wrist '  ** ;  of  course  a  mole  is  a  blemish,  but 
Alcaeus  thought  it  a  beauty.  Quintus  Catulus,  the 
father  of  our  colleague  and  friend  to-day,  was  warmly 
attached  to  your  fellow-townsman  Roscius,  and  aetu- 
ally  wrote  the  following  verses  in  his  honour  : 

By  chance  abroad  at  dawn,  I  stood  to  pray 
To  the  uprising  deity  of  day  ; 
^^'hen  lo  !  iipon  my  left — propitious  sight — 
Suddenly  Roscius  dawned  in  radiance  bright. 
Forgive  me,  heavenly  pow'rs,  if  I  declare, 
Meseem'd  the  mortal  than  the  god  more  fair. 

To  Catulus,  Roscius  was  fairer  than  a  god.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  he  liad,  as  he  has  to-day,  a  pronounced 
squint ;  but  no  matter — in  the  eyes  of  Catuhis  this 
in  itself  gave  him  piquancy  and  charm. 

80  "  I  return  to  the  gods.  XXIX.  Can  we  imagine  any 
gods,  I  do  not  say  as  cross-eyed  as  Roscius,  but  with 
a  shght  cast  ?  Can  we  picture  any  of  them  with  a 
mole,  a  snub  nose,  protruding  ears,  prominent  brows 
and  too  large  a  head — defects  not  unknown  among 

77 


CICERO 

sunt  in  nobis  ?  an  omnia  emendata  in  illis  ? 
Detur  id  vobis  ;  num  etiam  una  est  omnium  facies  ? 
nam  si  plures,  aliam  esse  alia  pulchriorem  necesse 
est :  igitur  aliquis  non  pulcherrimus  deus.  Si^  una 
omniiun  facies  est,  florere  in  caelo  Academiam 
necesse  est :  si  enim  nihil  inter  deum  et  deum 
difFert,  nulla  est  apud  deos  cognitio,  nulla  perceptio. 

81  "  Quid  si  etiam,  Vellei,  falsum  illud  omnino  est, 
nullam  aham  nobis  de  deo  cogitantibus  speciem 
nisi  hominis  occurrere  ?  tamenne  ista  tam  absurda 
defendes  ?  Nobis  fortasse  sic  occurrit  ut  dicis  ;  a 
parvis  enim^  lovem  lunonem  IMinervam  Neptunum 
Vulcanum  Apolhnem  rehquos  deos  ea  facie  novi- 
mus  qua  pictores  fictoresque  voluerunt,  neque  solum 
facie  sed  etiam  ornatu  aetate  vestitu.  At  non 
Aegyptii  nec  Syri  nec  fere  cuncta  barbaria  ;  firmiores 
enim  videas  apud  eos  opiniones  esse  de  bestiis 
quibusdam  quam  apud  nos  de  sanctissimis  temphs 

82  et  simulacris  deorum.  Etenim  fana  multa  spohata 
et  simulacra  deorum  de  locis  sanctissimis  ablata 
vidimus^  a  nostris,  at  vero  ne  fando  quidem  auditum 
est  crocodilum  aut  ibin  aut  faelem  violatum  ab 
Aegyptio.  Quid  igitur  censes  ?  Apim  iUum  sanc- 
tum  Aegyptiorum  bovem  nonne  deum  videri 
Aegyptiis  ?  Tam  hercle  quam  tibi  iham  vestram 
Sospitam.     Quam  tu  numquam  ne  in  somnis  quidem 


*  sin  ?  ed.  *  a  parvis  enim  I^^lotz  :  apparuisse. 

•  vidimus  Bouhier  :  videmus. 


78 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxix. 

us  men — ,  or  are  they  entirely  free  from  personal 
blemishes  ?  Suppose  we  grant  you  that,  are  we 
also  to  say  that  they  are  all  exactly  ahke  ?  If  not, 
there  will  be  degrees  of  beauty  among  them,  and 
therefore  a  god  can  fali  short  of  supreme  beauty. 
If  on  the  other  hand  they  are  all  alike,  then  the 
Academic  school  must  }iave  a  large  following  in 
heaven,  since  if  there  is  no  difference  between  one 
god  and  another,  among  the  gods  knowledge  and 
perception  must  be  impossible. 

81  "  Furthermore,  Velleius,  what  if  your  assumption,  Anthropo 
that  when  we  think  of  god  the  only  form  that  pre-  "'orphic 
sents  itself  to  us  is  that  of  a  man,  be  entirely  untrue  ?  not  shared 
>\ill   you    nevertheless    continue    to    maintain   your  ^^  ^  ^^^^ 
absurdities  ?     Very  likely  we   Romans   do  imagine 

god  as  you  say,  because  from  our  childhood  Jupiter, 
Juno,  JNlinerva,  Neptune,  ^'ulcan  and  Apollo  have 
been  kno^\Ti  to  us  Mith  the  aspect  with  which  painters 
and  sculptors  have  chosen  to  represent  them,  and 
not  with  that  aspect  only,  but  having  that  equipment, 
age  and  dress.  But  they  are  not  so  known  to  the 
Egyptians  or  Syrians,  or  any  almost  of  the  uncivilized 
races.  Among  these  you  will  find  a  behef  in  certain 
animals  more  hrmly  established  than  is  reverence  for 
the  holiest  sanctuaries  and  images  of  the  gods  with 

82  us.  For  we  have  often  seen  temples  robbed  and 
images  of  gods  carried  off  from  the  holiest  shrines  by 
our  fellow-countrymen,  but  no  one  ever  even  heard 
of  an  Egyptian  laying  profane  hands  on  a  crocodile 
or  ibis  or  cat.  What  therefore  do  you  infer  ?  that 
the  Egyptians  do  not  believe  their  sacred  buU  Apis 
to  be  a  god  ?  Precisely  as  much  as  you  beheve  the 
Sa^-iour  Juno  of  your  native  place  to  be  a  goddess. 
You   never   see    her   even   in   your   dreams    unless 

79 


CICERO 

vides  nisi  cum  pelle  caprina  cum  hasta  cum  scutulo 
cum  calceolis  repandis  :  at  non  est  talis  Argia  nec 
Romana  luno.  Ergo  alia  species  lunonis  Argi\-is, 
alia  Lanu^dniSj  alia  nobis.^      Et  quidem   alia   nobis 

83  Capitolini,  alia  Afris  Hammonis  lovis.  XXX.  Non 
pudet  igitur  physicum,  id  est  speculatorem  venato- 
remque  naturae,  ab  animis  consuetudine  inbutis 
petere  testimonium  veritatis  ?  Isto  enim  modo 
dicere  Ucebit  lovem  semper  barbatum,  ApolUnem 
semper  inberbem,  caesios  oculos  Minervae,  caeruleos 
esse  Neptum'.  Et  quidem  laudamus  Athenis  Volca- 
num  eum  quem  fecit  Alcamenes,  in  quo  stante  atque 
vestito  leviter  apparet  claudicatio  non  deformis. 
Claudum  igitur  habebimus  deum  quoniam  de  Volcano 
sic  accepimus.     Age  et  his  vocabuhs  esse  deos  faci- 

84  mus^  quibus  a  nobis  nominantur  ?  At  primum,  quot 
hominum  hnguae,  tot  nomina  deorum.  Non  enim, 
ut  tu  Velleius,  quocumque  veneris,  sic  idem  in  Itaha 
Volcanus,  idem  in  Africa,  idem  in  Hispania.  Deinde 
nominum  non  magnus  numerus  ne  in  pontificiis 
quidem  nostris,  deorum  autem  innumerabihs. 
An  sine  nominibus  sunt  ?  Istud  quidem  ita  vobis 
dicere  necesse  est ;  quid  enim  attinet,  cum  una 
facies  sit,  plura  esse  nomina  ?  Quam  behum  erat, 
VeUei,  confiteri  potius  nescire  quod  nescires,^  quam 
ista  effutientem  nauseare  atque  ipsum  tibi*  disphcere! 

*  aha  nobis  det.,  om.  cett.  "  faciamus  dett. 

*  nescires  dett.  :   nesciris  A^  nescis  corr.  B. 

*  tibi  j\fanutius  :  sibi. 

80 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxix.— xxx. 

equipped  ^^ith  goat-skin,  spear,  buckler  and  slippers 
turned  up  at  the  toe.  Yet  that  is  not  the  aspect  of 
the  Argive  Juno,  nor  of  the  Ronian.  It  follows  that 
Juno  has  one  form  for  the  Argives,  another  for  the 
people  of  Lanuvium,  and  another  for  us.  And 
indeed  our  Jupiter  of  the  Capitol  is  not  the  same  as 

83  the  Africans'  Juppiter  Ammon.  XXX.  Should  not 
the  physical  philosopher  therefore,  that  is,  the  ex- 
plorer  and  tracker-out  of  nature,  be  ashamed  to  go 
to  minds  besotted  with  habit  for  e^idence  of  truth  ? 
On  vour  principle  it  will  be  legitimate  to  assert  that 
Jupiter  always  Mears  a  beard  and  Apollo  never,  and 
that  Minerva  has  grey  eyes  and  Neptune  blue.  Yes, 
and  at  Athens  there  is  a  much-praised  statue  of 
Vulcan  made  by  Alcamenes,  a  standing  figure, 
draped,  which  displays  a  shght  lameness,  though  not 
enoueh  to  be  unsifrhtlv.  We  shall  therefore  deem 
god  to  be  lame,  since  tradition  represents  \'ulcan  so. 
Tell  me  now,  do  we  also  make  out  the  gods  to  have 
the  same  names  as  those  by  which  they  are  kno^vn 

84  to  us  ?  But  in  the  first  place  the  gods  have  as  many 
names  as  mankind  has  languages.  You  are  Velleius 
wherever  you  travel,  but  \'ulcan  has  a  different  name 
in  Italy,  in  Africa  and  in  Spain.  Again,  the  total 
number  of  names  even  in  our  pontifical  books  is  not 
great,  but  there  are  gods  innumerable.  Are  they 
Mithout  names  ?  You  Epicureans  at  all  events  are 
forced  to  say  so,  since  what  is  the  point  of  more 
names  when  they  are  all  exactly  alike  ?  How  de- 
hghtful  it  would  be,  \  elleius,  if  when  you  did  not 
know  a  thing  you  would  admit  your  ignorance,  in- 
stead  of  uttering  this  drivel,  which  must  make  even 
your  own  gorge  rise  with  disgust  !     Do  you  really 

81 


CICERO 

An  tii  mei  similem  putas  esse  aut  tui  deum  ?     Pro- 
fecto  non  putas. 

"  Quid  ergo,  solem  dicam  aut  lunam  aut  caelum 
deum  ?  Ergo  etiam  beatum  :  quibus  fruentem 
voluptatibus  ?  et  sapientem  :  qui  potest  esse  in 
eius    modi    trunco    sapientia  ?     Haec    vestra    sunt. 

85  Si  igitur  nec  humano  visu,  quod  docui,  nec  tali  ali- 
quo,  quod  tibi  ita  persuasum  est,  quid  dubitas  negare 
deos  esse  ?  Non  audes.  Sapienter  id  quidem,  etsi 
hoc  loco  non  populum  metuis  sed  ipsos  deos  :  novi 
ego  Epicureos  omnia  sigilla  venerantes,^  quamquam 
video  non  nullis  ^ideri  Epicurum,  ne  in  offensionem 
Atheniensium  caderet,  verbis  rehquisse  deos,  re  sus- 
tuHsse.  Itaque  in  ilhs  selectis  eius  brevibusque  sen- 
tentiis,  quas  appellatis  Kvpcas  So^ag,  haec  ut  opinor 
prima  sententia  est  :  '  Quod  beatum  et  inmortale 
est,  id  nec  habet  nec  exhibet  cuiquam  negotium.' 
XXXI.  In  hac  ita  exposita  sententia  sunt  qui  existi- 
ment,  quod  ille  inscitia  plane  loquendi  fecerit,' 
fecisse    consulto  ;     de    homine   minime    vafro   male 

86  existimant.  Dubium  est  enim  utrum  dicat  ahquid 
beatum  esse  et  inmortale  an,  si  quid  sit,  id  esse 
tale.'  Non  animadvertunt  hic  eum  ambigue  locu- 
tum  esse  sed  multis  ahis  locis  et  illum  et  Metrodorum 
tam  aperte  quam  paulo  ante  te.     Ille  vero  deos  esse 

*  venerantes  Manutms  :  numerantes. 

*  fecerit  A^  B  :  fecerat  co7-r.  A,  dett.  :  fecit .?  (ci.  sed 
reiecit  Plasherg).  ^  tale  Heindorf:   mortale. 

"  Epicurus  recorded  his  principal  tenets  in  a  series  of 
briefarticlesofbeliefwhich  h&ca\\^diKvpLaLbb^aL,Authoritative 
Opinions.  Diog.  L.  x.  139.  This  one  runs  rd  /xaKo.pioi'  Kal 
&(p6apT0P  oCt€  avTO  wpdyfxaTa  ^x^'  oiJre  fiXXy  irap^ct, 

82 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxx.— xxxi. 

believe   that  god  resembles   me,   or  yourself?     Of 
coiirse  you  do  not. 

"  What  then  ?  Am  I  to  say  that  the  sun  is  a  god, 
or  the  moon,  or  the  sky  ?  If  so,  we  must  also  say 
that  it  is  happy  ;  but  what  forms  of  enjoyment  con- 
stitute  its  happiness  ?  and  wise  ;  but  how  can  wisdom 
reside  in  a  senseless  bulk  hke  that  ?     These  are  argu- 

35  ments  employed  by  your  own  school.     Well  then,  Anthropo 
if  the  gods  do  not  possess  the  appearance  of  men,  as  "^^^^^3^*^™ 
I  have  proved,  nor  some  such  form  as  that  of  the  heid  by 
heavenly  bodies,  as  you  are  convinced,  why  do  you  h^ggj^ 
hesitate  to  deny  their  existence  ?     You  do  not  dare 
to.     W^ell,  that  is  no  doubt  wise — although  in  this 
matter  it  is  not  the  pubUc  that  you  fear,  but  the  gods 
themselves :    I  personally  am  acquainted  with  Epi- 
cureans  who   worship   every  paltry  image,  albeit    I 
am    aware    that    according    to    some    people's    view 
Epicurus  really  aboHshed  the  gods,  but  nominally 
retained  them  in  order  not  to  offend  the  people  of 
Athens.     Thus  the  first  of  his  selected  aphorisms  or 
maxims,  which  you  call  the  Ki/riai  Doxai,^  runs,  I 
beheve,   thus  :     That   which   is   blessed   and  immortal 
neiiher    experiences    trouble    nor    causes    it    to    anyone. 
XXXI.  Now  there  are  people  who  think  that  the 
wording  of  this  maxim  was  intentional,  though  really 
it  was  due  to  the  author's  inabihty  to  express  himself 
clearly  ;  their  suspicion  does  an  injustice  to  the  most 

86  guileless  of  mankind.  It  is  in  fact  doubtful  whether 
he  means  that  there  is  a  blessed  and  immortal  being, 
or  that,  (/there  is,  that  being  is  such  as  he  describes. 
They  fail  to  notice  that  although  his  language  is 
ambiguous  here,  yet  in  many  other  places  both  he 
and  Metrodorus  speak  as  plainly  as  you  yourself  did 
just   now.      Epicurus   however   does   actually   think 

83 


CICERO 

putat,  nec  quemquam  \ddi  qui  magis  ea  quae  timenda 
esse  negaret  timeret,  mortem  dico  et  deos  ;  quibus 
mediocres  homines  non  ita  valde  moventur,  his  ille 
clamat  omnium  mortaUum  mentes  esse  perterritas  ; 
tot  milia  latrocinantur  morte  proposita,  alii  omnia 
quae  possunt  fana  conpilant  :  credo  aut  illos  mortis 
timor  terret  aut  hos  rehgionis  ! 

87  "  Sed  quoniam  non  audes  (iam  enim  cum  ipso  Epi- 
curo  loquar)  negare  esse  deos,  quid  est  quod  te  in- 
pediat  aut  solem  aut  mundum  aut  mentem  aliquam 
sempiternam  in  deorum  numero^  ponere  ?  '  Num- 
quam  vidi '  inquit  '  animam  rationis  consiUique 
participem  in  ulla  aUa  nisi  humana  figura.'  Quid  ? 
sohs  numquidnam  aut  lunae  aut  quinque  errantium 
siderum  simile  \ddisti  ?  Sol  duabus  unius  orbis 
ultimis  partibus  definiens  motum  cursus  annuos 
conficit ;  huius  hanc  lustrationem  eiusdem  incensa 
radiis  menstruo  spatio  luna  complet ;  quinque 
autem  stellae  eundem  orbem  tenentes,  ahae  propius 
a   terris,    aliae   remotius,    ab   isdem   principiiis   dis- 

88  paribus  temporibus  eadem  spatia  conficiunt.  Num 
quid  tale,  Epicure,  \-idisti  ?  Ne  sit  igitur  sol  ne 
luna  ne  stellae,  quoniam  nihil  esse  potest  nisi  quod 
attigimus  aut  \idimus.  Quid  ?  deum  ipsum  numne 
vidisti  ?  Cur  igitur  credis  esse  ?  Omnia  toUamus 
ergo  quae  aut  historia  nobis  aut  ratio  nova  adfert. 

^  numero  Walker  :  natura. 

•  i.e.f  have  you  seen  things  perform  all   these  motions 
under  your  eyes?   we  see  only  parts  of  the  courses  of  the 
heavenly  bodies. 
84 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxxi. 

that  the  gods  exist,  nor  have  I  ever  met  anybody  more 
afraid  than  he  was  of  those  thinijs  Mhich  he  says  are 
not  terrible  at  all,  I  mean  death  and  the  gods.  Terrors 
that  do  not  very  seriously  alarm  ordinary  people, 
according  to  Epicurus  haunt  the  minds  of  all  mortal 
men :  so  many  thousands  commit  brigandage,  for 
which  the  penalty  is  death,  and  other  mcn  rob 
temples  whenever  they  have  the  chance  ;  I  suppose 
the  former  are  haunted  by  the  fear  of  death  and  the 
latter  by  the  terrors  of  religion  ! 

87  "  But  as  you  have  not  the  courage  (for  I  will  now  Ritionaiity 
address  myself  to  Epicurus  in  person)  to  deny  that  to  humaiT^ 
the  gods  exist,  what  should  hinder  you  from  reckoning  ^°^°^ 

as  divine  the  sun,  or  the  world,  or  some  form  of  ever- 
Uving  intelligence  ?  '  I  have  never  seen  a  mind 
endowed  with  reason  and  with  purpose/  he  rephes, 
*  that  was  embodied  in  any  but  a  human  form.' 
Well,  but  have  you  ever  seen  anything  Hke  the  sun 
or  the  moon  or  the  five  planets  }  The  sun,  hmiting 
his  motion  by  the  two  extreme  points  of  one  orbit, 
completes  his  courses  yearly.  The  moon,  Ut  by 
the  sun's  rays,  achieves  tliis  solar  path  in  the 
space  of  a  month.  The  five  planets,  holding  the  same 
orbit,  but  some  nearer  to  and  others  farther  from  the 
earth,  from  the  same  starting-points  complete  the 

88  same  distances  in  different  periods  of  time.  Now, 
Epicurus,  have  you  ever  seen  anything  Hke  this  "  ? 
Well  then,  let  us  deny  the  existence  of  the  sun,  moon 
and  pLanets,  inasmuch  as  nothing  can  exist  save  that 
which  we  have  touclied  or  seen.  And  what  of  god 
himself  ?  You  have  never  seen  him,  have  you  ? 
Why  then  do  you  beheve  in  his  existence  ?  On  this 
principle  we  must  sweep  aside  everything  unusual 
of  which  history  or  science  informs  us.     The  next 

85 


CICERO 

Ita  fit  ut  mediterranei  mare  esse  non  credant. 
Quae  sunt  tantae  animi  angustiae  ?  Ut,  si  Seriphi 
natus  esses  nec  umquam  egressus  ex  insula  in  qua 
lepusculos  vulpeculasque  saepe  vidisses,  non  crederes 
leones  et  pantheras  esse  cum  tibi  quales  essent  dice- 
retur,  si  vero  de  elephanto  quis  diceret,  etiam  rideri 
te  putares.^ 

89  "  Et  tu  quidem,  Vellei,  non  vestro  more  sed  dialecti- 
corum,  quae  funditus  gens  vestra  non  no\at,  argu- 
menti^  sententiam  conclusisti.  Beatos  esse  deos 
sumpsisti :  concedimus.  Beatum  autem  esse  sine 
virtute  neminem  posse.  XXXII.  Id  quoque  damus, 
et  libenter  quidem.  Virtutem  autem  sine  ratione 
constare  non  posse  :  conveniat  id  quoque  necesse 
est.  Adiungis  nec  rationem  esse  nisi  in  hominis 
figura  :  quem  tibi  hoc  daturum  putas  }  si  enim  ita 
esset,  quid  opus  erat  te  gradatim  istuc  pervenire  ? 
sumpsisses  tuo  iure.  Qui^  autem  est  istuc  gradatim  ? 
nam  a  beatis  ad  virtutem,  a  virtute  ad  rationem 
video  te  venisse  gradibus  :  a  ratione  ad  humanam 
figuram  quo  modo  accedis  ?  Praecipitare  istuc 
quidem  est,  non  descendere. 

90  "  Nec  vero  intellego  cur  maluerit  Epicurus  deos 
hominum  similes  dicere  quam  homines  deorum. 
Quaeres  quid  intersit ;  si  enim  hoc  ilU  simile  sit,  esse 
illud  huic.  Video,  sed  hoc  dico,  non  ab  hominibus 
formae  figuram  venisse  ad  deos  ;  di  enim  semper 
fuerunt,  nati  numquam  sunt,  siquidem  aeterni  sunt 

^  an  quicquam  .  .  .  numquam  vidimus  e  §  97  huc  beno 
transtulit  Ilude. 

^  argumenti  yi,  B  :  argumento  dett. 

^  qui  Schomann :  quid  dett.,  quod  A,B{  =  quale  Plasberg), 
86 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxxi.— xxxii. 

thing  would  be  for  inland  races  to  refuse  to  believe 
in  the  existence  of  the  sea.  How  can  such  narrow- 
ness  of  mind  be  possible  ?  It  follows  that,  if  you 
had  been  born  in  Seriphus  and  liad  never  left  the 
island,  where  you  had  been  used  to  seeing  nothing 
larger  than  hares  and  foxes,  when  Hons  and  panthers 
were  described  to  you,  you  v>ould  refuse  to  beheve 
in  their  existence  ;  and  if  somebody  told  you  about 
an  elephant,  you  would  actually  think  that  he  was 
making  fun  of  you  ! 

B9  "  For  your  part,  Velleius,  you  forsook  the  practice 
of  your  school  for  that  of  the  logicians — a  science  of 
which  your  clan  is  entirely  ignorant — and  expressed 
the  doctrine  in  the  form  of  a  syllogism.  You  assumed 
that  the  gods  are  happy  :  we  grant  it.  But  no  one, 
yousaid,can  be  happy  withoutvirtue.  XXXII.  This 
also  we  give  you,  and  wiUingly.  But  virtue  cannot 
exist  without  reason.  To  this  also  we  must  agree. 
You  add,  neither  can  reason  exist  save  embodied  in 
human  form.  Who  do  you  suppose  will  grant  you 
this  ?  for  if  it  were  true,  what  need  had  you  to 
arrive  at  it  by  successive  steps  ?  you  might  have 
taken  it  for  granted.  But  what  about  your  successive 
steps  ?  I  see  how  you  proceeded  step  by  step  from 
happiness  to  virtue,  from  virtue  to  reason  ;  but  how 
from  reason  do  you  arrive  at  human  form  ?  That  is 
not  a  step,  it  is  a  headlong  plunge. 

K)      "  Nor  indeed  do  I  understand  why  Epicurus  pre-  Tiieo- 
ferred  to  say  that  gods  are  Uke  men  rather  than  that  o"  mankSd 
men  are  hke  gods.     '  What  is  the  difference  ?  '  you  equuiiy  un- 
will  ask  me,  '  for  if  A  is  Hke  B,  B  is  Hke  A.'     I  am  ^«°^^°^^^^ 
aware  of  it  ;   but  what  I  mean  is,  that  the  gods  did 
not  derive  the  pattern  of  their  form  from  men  ;  since 
the  gods  have  always  existed,  and  were  never  born — 

87 


CICERO 

futuri  ;  at  homines  nati  ;  ante  igitur  humana  forma 
quam  homines,  eaque^  erant  forma  di  inmortales. 
Non  ergo  illorum  humana  forma  sed  nostra  divina 
dicenda  est. 

"  Verum  hoc  quidem  ut  voletis  ;  illud  quaero,  quae 
fuerit  tanta  fortuna  (nihil  enim  ratione  in  rerum 
natura   factum    esse   vultis) — sed    tamen    quis    iste 

91  tantus  casus,  unde  tam  fehx  concursus  atomorum,  ut 
repente  homines  deorum  forma  nascerentur.  Semina- 
ne  deorum  decidisse  de  caelo  putamus  in  terras 
et  sic  homines  patrum  similes  extitisse  ?  Vellem 
diceretis  ;  deorum  cognationem  agnoscerem  non 
invitus.  Nihil  tale  dicitis,  sed  casu  esse  factum  ut 
essemus  similes  deorum. 

"  Et  nunc  argumenta  quaerenda  sunt  quibus  hoc 
refellatur  ?  Utinam  tam  facile  vera  invenire  pos- 
sem  quam  falsa  convincere.  XXXIII.  Etenim  enu- 
merasti  memoriter  et  copiose,  ut  mihi  quidem 
admirari  luberet  in  homine  esse  Romano  tantam 
scientiam,  usque  a  Thale  Milesio  de  deorum  natura 

92  philosophorum  sententias.  Omnesne  tibi  ilH  deUrare 
visi  sunt  qui  sine  manibus  et  pedibus  constare  deum 
posse  decreverint  ?  Ne  hoc  quidem  vos  movet 
considerantis,  quae  sit  utihtas  quaeque  opportunitas 
in  homine  membrorum,  ut  iudicetis  membris  humanis 
deos  non  egere  ?  Quid  enim  pedibus  opus  est  sine 
ingressu,  quid  manibus  si  nihil  conprehendendum 
est,  quid  rehqua  discriptione  omnium  corporis 
partium,  in  qua  nihil  inane,  nihil  sine   causa,  nihil 

^  eaque  dett.  :  ea  qua  A,  B. 
88 


DE  NATUllA  DEORUM,  I.  xxxii.— xxxiii. 

that  is,  if  tliey  are  to  be  eternal  ;  whereas  men  were 
born  ;  therefore  the  human  form  existed  before  man- 
kind,  and  it  was  the  form  of  the  immortal  gods.  We 
ought  not  to  say  that  the  gods  have  human  form,  but 
that  our  form  is  divine. 

"  However,  as  to  that,  you  may  take  your  choice. 
What  I  want  to  know  is,  how  did  such  a  piece  of  good 
luck  happen  (for  according  to  your  school  nothing 
in  the  universe  was  caused  by  design) — but  be  that 

91  as  it  may,  what  accident  was  so  potent,  how  did  such 
a  fortunate  concourse  of  atoms  come  about,  that 
suddenly  men  were  born  in  the  form  of  gods  ?  Are 
we  to  think  that  divine  seed  fell  from  heaven  to 
earth,  and  that  thus  men  came  into  being  resembhng 
their  sires  ?  I  wish  that  this  were  your  story,  for  I 
should  be  glad  to  acknowledge  my  divine  relations  ! 
But  you  do  not  say  any thing  of  the  sort — you  say  that 
our  likeness  to  the  gods  was  caused  by  chance. 

"  And  now  is  there  any  need  to  search  for  argu- 
ments  to  refute  this  ?  I  only  wish  I  could  dis- 
cover  the  truth  as  easily  as  I  can  expose  falsehood. 
XXXIII.  For  you  gave  a  full  and  accurate  review, 
which  caused  me  for  one  to  wonder  at  so  much  learn 
ing  in  a  Roman,  of  the  theological  doctrines  of  the 

92  philosophers  from  Thales  of  Miletus  downward.     Did  ^^at  use 
you  think  they  were  all  out  of  their  minds  because  iimbsto 
they  pronounced  that  god  can  exist  without  hands  or  ^^^Ti™^^^ 
feet  ?     Does  not  even  a  consideration  of  the  adapta-  gods? 
tion  of  man's  hmbs  to  their  functions  convince  you 

that  the  gods  do  not  require  human  hmbs  ?  What 
need  is  there  for  feet  without  walking,  or  for  hands 
if  nothing  has  to  be  grasped,  or  for  the  rest  of  the  hst 
of  the  various  parts  of  the  body,  in  which  nothing  is 
useless,  nothing  without  a  reason,   nothing  super- 

89 


CICERO 

supervacaneum  est,  itaque  nulla  ars  imitari  soUertiam 
naturae  potest  ?  Habebit  igitur  linguam  deus  et  non 
loquetur,  dentes  palatum  fauces  nuUum  ad  usum  ; 
quaeque  procreationis  causa  natura  corpori  adfinxit 
ea  frustra  habebit  deus  ;  nec  externa  magis  quam 
interiora,  cor  pulmones  iecur  cetera,  quae  detracta 
utilitate  quid  habent  venustatis  ? — quandoquidem 
haec  esse  in  deo  propter  pulchritudinem  voltis. 
93  "  Istisne  fidentes  somniis  non  modo  Epicurus  et 
Metrodorus  et  Hermarchus  contra  Pythagoram  Pla- 
tonem  Empedoclemque  dixerunt  sed  meretricula 
etiam  Leontium  contra  Theophrastum  scribere  ausa 
est  ?  scito  illa  quidem  seraione  et  Attico,  sed  tamen  : 
tantum  Epicuri  hortus  habuit  hcentiae.  Et  soletis 
queri  ;  Zeno  quidem  etiam  htigabat  ;  quid  dicam 
Albucium  ?  Nam  Phaedro  niliil  elegantius  nihil 
humanius,  sed  stomachabatur  senex  si  quid  asperius 
dixeram,  cum  Epicurus  Aristotelem  vexarit  contume- 
hosissime,  Phaedoni  Socratico  turpissime  male  dixerit, 
Metrodori  sodahs  sui  fratrem  Timocraten  quia  nescio 
quid  in  philosophia  dissentiret  totis  voluminibus  con- 
ciderit,  in  Democritum  ipsum  quem  secutus  est  fuerit 
ingratus,  Nausiphanen  magistrum  suum  a  quo  non^ 
nihil  didicerat  tam  male  acceperit.  XXXIV.  Zeno 
quidem  non  eos  solum  qui  tum  erant,  Apollodorum 
*  non  dett.  :  om.  A,  B. 

90 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxxiii.— xxxiv. 

fliious,  so  that  no  art  can  imitate  the  cunning  of 
nature's  handiwork  ?     It  secms  then  that  god  will 
have  a  tonguc,  and  will  not  speak  ;   teeth,  a  palate, 
a  throat,  for  no  use  ;    the  organs  that  nature  has 
attached  to  the  body  for  the  object  of  procreation — 
these  god  will  possess,  but  to  no  purpose  ;    and  not 
only  the  external  but  also  the  internal  organs,  the 
heart,  lungs,  liver  and  the  rest,  which  if  they  are  not 
useful  are  assuredly  not  beautiful — since  your  school 
holds  that  god  possesses  bodily  parts  because  of  their 
beauty. 
93      "  Was   it   dreams   Hke   these   that   not   only    en-  Epicnreana 
couraged  Epicurus  and  Metrodorus  and  Hermarchus  other^  ^ 
to  contradict  Pythagoras,  Plato  and  Empedocles,  but  schoois,  but 
actually  emboldened  a  loose  woman  Hke  Leontium  anthropo- 
to  ^^Tite  a  book  refuting  Theophrastus  ?     Her  style  morphism 
no  doubt  is  the  neatest  of  Attic,  but  all  the  same  ! —  ridicuious. 
such  was  the  Hcence  that  prevailed  in  the  Garden 
of  Epicurus.     And  yet  you   are  touchy  yourselves, 
indeed  Zeno  actually  used  to  invoke  the  law.     I  need 
not  mention  Albucius.     As  for  Phaedrus,  though  he 
was  the  most  relined  and  courteous  of  old  gentlemen, 
he  used  to  lose  his  temper  if  I  spoke  too  harshly  ; 
although  Epicurus   attacked  Aristotle  in  the  most 
insulting   manner,    abused    Socrates'    pupil    Phaedo 
quite   outrageously,  devoted  whole   volumes  to   an 
onslaught   on  Timocrates,   the   brother   of  his   own 
associate  Metrodorus,  for  ditfering  from  him  on  some 
point  or  other  of  philosophy,  showed  no  gratitude 
toward  Democritus  himself,  whose  system  he  adopted, 
and  treated  so  badly  his  own  master  Xausiphanes, 
from  whom  he  had  learnt  a  considerable  amount. 
XXXIV.  As  for  Zeno,  he  aimed  the  shafts  of  his 
abuse  not  only  at  his  contemporaries,  ApoUodorus, 

91 


CICERO 

Silum  ceteros,  figebat  maledictis,  sed  Socraten 
ipsum  parentem  philosophiae  Latino  verbo  utens 
scurram  Atticum  fuisse  dicebat,  Chrysippum  num- 

94  quam  nisi  Chrysippam  vocabat.  Tu  ipse  paulo  ante 
cum  tamquam  senatum  philosophorum  recitares, 
summos  viros  desipere  deUrare  dementis  esse  dicebas. 
Quorum  si  nemo  verum  vidit  de  natura  deorum, 
verendum  est  ne  nuUa  sit  omnino. 

"  Nam  ista  quae  vos  dicitis  sunt  tota  commenticia, 
vix  digna  lucubratione  anicularum.  Non  enim  sentitis 
quam  multa  vobis  suscipienda  sint  si  inpetraritis  ut 
concedamus  eandem  hominum  esse  et  deorum  figuram. 
Omnis  cultus  et  curatio  corporis  erit  eadem  adhibenda 
deo  quae  adhibetur  homini,  ingressus  cursus  accu- 
bitio  incUnatio   sessio   conprehensio,   ad    extremum 

95  etiam  sermo  et  oratio  ;  nam  quod  et  maris  deos  et 
feminas  esse  dicitis,  quid  sequatur  videtis.  Equidem 
mirari  satis  non  possum  unde  ad  istas  opiniones  vester 
ille  princeps  venerit.  Sed  clamare  non  desinitis 
retinendum  hoc  esse,  deus  ut  beatus  inmortalisque 
sit.  Quid  autem  obstat  quo  minus  sit  beatus  si  non 
sit  bipes  ?  aut  ista  sive  beatitas  sive  beatitudo 
dicenda  est  (utrumque  omnino  durum,  sed  usu 
moUienda  nobis  verba  sunt) — verum  ea  quaecumque 
est  cur  aut  in  solem  illum  aut  in  hunc  mundum  aut 
in   ahquam   mentem   aeternam   figura   membrisque 

96  corporis  vacuam  cadere  non  potest  ?  Nihil  aUud  dicis 
nisi :  '  Numquam  vidi  solem  aut  mundum  beatum,* 
92 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxxiv. 

Silus  and  the  rest,  but  Socrates  himself,  the  father 
of  philosophy,  he  declared  to  liave  been  the  Attic 
equivalent  of  our  Roman  buffoons  ;    and  he  always 

>4  alluded  to  Chrysippus  in  the  feminine  gender.  You 
yourself  just  now,  when  reeHng  off  the  hst  of  phiio- 
sophers  Uke  the  censor  calhng  the  roll  of  the  Senate, 
said  that  all  those  eminent  men  were  fools,  idiots  and 
madmen.  But  if  none  of  these  discerned  the  truth 
about  the  divine  nature,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the 
divine  nature  is  entirely  non-existent. 

"  For  as  for  your  schoors  account  of  the  matter, 
it  is  the  merest  fairy-story,  hardly  worthy  of  old  wives 
at  work  by  lampHght.  You  don't  perceive  what  a 
number  of  things  you  are  let  in  for,  if  we  consent  to 
admit  that  men  and  gods  have  the  same  form.  You 
will  have  to  assign  to  god  exactly  the  same  physical 
exercises  and  care  of  the  person  as  are  proper  to  men  : 
he  will  walk,  run,  recHne,  bend,  sit,  hold  things  in  the 
hand,  and  lastly  even  converse  and  make  speeches. 

)6  As  for  your  saying  that  the  gods  are  male  and  female, 
weH,  you  must  see  what  the  consequence  of  that  wiU 
be.  For  my  part,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  imagine  how  your 
great  founder  arrived  at  such  notions.  AH  the  same 
you  never  cease  vociferating  that  we  must  on  no 
account  rehnquish  the  divine  happiness  and  immor- 
tahty.  But  Mhat  prevents  god  from  being  happy 
without  having  two  legs  ?  and  why  cannot  your 
*  beatitude  '  or  *  beatity,'  whichever  form  we  are  to 
use — and  either  is  certainly  a  hard  mouthful,  but 
words  have  to  be  softened  by  use — but  whatever  it 
is,  why  can  it  not  apply  to  the  sun  yonder,  or  to  this 
world  of  ours,  or  to  some  eternal  inteUigence  devoid 

)6  of  bodily  shape  and  membcrs  ?     Your  only  answer 

is,  *  I  have  never  seen  a  happy  sun  or  world.*     Well, 

£  93 


CICERO 

Quid,  mundum  praeter  hunc  umquamne  \ddisti  ? 
Negabis.  Cur  igitur  non  sescenta  milia  esse  mun* 
dorum  sed  innumerabilia  ausus  es  dicere  ?  '  Ratio 
docuit.'  Ergo  hoc  te  ratio  non  docebit,  cum  prae- 
stantissima  natura  quaeratur  eaque  beata  et  aeterna, 
quae  sola  di^dna  natura  est,  ut  inmortahtate  vincamur* 
ab  ea  natura  sic  animi  praestantia  vinci,  atque  ut 
animi  item  corporis  ?  Cur  igitur  cum  ceteris  rebus 
inferiores  simus  forma  pares  sumus  ?  ad  simiHtudi- 
nem  enim  deorum  propius  accedebat  humana  virtus 
07  quam  figura.  XXXV.  [^An  quicquam  tam  puerile  dici 
potest  (ut  eundem  locum  diutius  urgeam)  quam  si 
ea  genera  beluarum  quae  in  rubro  mari  Indiave 
gignuntur^  nulla  esse  dicamus  ?  Atqui  ne  curiosis- 
simi  quidem  homines  exquirendo  audire  tam  multa 
possunt  quam  sunt  multa  quae  terra  mari  paludibus 
fluminibus  exsistunt ;  quae  negemus  esse  quia  num- 
quam  vidimus  !] 

"  Ipsa  vero  quam  nihil  ad  rem  pertinet  quae  vos 
delectat  maxime  similitudo  !  Quid,  canis  nonne 
simihs  lupo  ? — atque,  ut  Ennius, 

simia  quam  similis  turpissuma  bestia  nobis ! — 

at  mores  in  utroque  dispares.  Elephanto  beluarum 
98  nulla  prudentior :  at  figura*  quae  vastior  ?  De 
bestiis  loquor  :  quid,  inter  ipsos  homines  nonne  et 
simiUimis  formis  dispares  mores  et  moribus  simillimis* 
figura  dissimihs  ?    Etenim  si  semel,  Vellei,  suscipimus 

*  vincamur  A^  B  :  vincimur  dett. 

*  an  quicquara  .  .  .  nunquam  vidimus  in  §  88  hene  trana- 
tulit  Hude. 

'  gignuntur  Schomann  :  gignantur. 

*  at  figura  det.  (figura  B) :   ad  figuram  A, 

'  simHiimis  det. :  om.  A,  B:  paribus  Klotz, 
94 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxxiv.— xxxv. 

but  have  you  ever  seen  any  other  world  but  this  one  ? 
No,  you  will  reply.  Then  why  did  you  venture  to 
assert  the  existence  of,  not  thousands  and  thousands, 
but  a  countless  number  of  worlds  ?  '  That  is  what 
reason  teaches.'  Then  will  not  reason  teach  you  that 
when  we  seek  to  find  a  being  who  shall  be  supremely 
excellent,  and  happy  and  eternal  as  well — and 
nothing  else  constitutes  divinity — ,  even  as  that  being 
will  surpass  us  in  immortahty,  so  also  will  it  surpass 
us  in  mental  excellence,  and  even  as  in  mental  excel- 
lence,  so  also  in  bodily.  Why  then,  if  we  are  inferior 
to  god  in  all  else,  are  we  his  equals  in  form  ?  for  man 
came  nearer  to  the  divine  image  in  virtue  than  in 
7  outward  aspect.  XXXV.  [Can  you  mention  any- 
thing  so  cliildish  (to  press  the  same  point  still  further) 
as  to  deny  the  existence  of  the  various  species  of  huge 
animals  that  grow  in  the  Red  Sea  or  in  India  ?  Yet 
not  even  the  most  dihgent  investigators  could  possibly 
collect  information  about  all  the  vast  multitude  of 
creatures  that  exist  on  land  and  in  the  sea,  the 
marshes  and  the  rivers  :  the  existence  of  which  we 
are  to  deny,  because  we  have  never  seen  them  !] 

"  Then  take  your  favourite  argument  from  re- 
semblance  :  how  utterly  pointless  it  really  is  !  Why, 
does  not  a  dog  resemble  a  wolf  ? — and,  to  quote 
Ennius, 

How  like  us  is  that  ugly  brute,  the  ape ! — 

but  the  two  differ  in  habits.     The  elephant  is  the 
)8  wisest  of  beasts,  but  the  most  ungainly  in  shape.     I  Why  should 
speak  of  animals,  but  is  it  not  the  case  even  with  men  onTyTn^^^^ 
that  when  very  much  ahke  in  appearance  they  differ  human 
widely  in  character,  and  when  very  much  ahke  in 
character  they  are  unUke  in  appearance  ?     In  fact, 

95 


CICERO 

genus  hoc  argumenti,  attende  quo  serpat.  Tu  enim 
sumebas  nisi  in  hominis  figura  rationem  inesse  non 
posse  ;  sumet  alius  nisi  in  terrestri,  nisi  in  eo  qui 
natus  sit,  nisi  in  eo  qui  adoleverit,  nisi  in  eo  qui 
didicerit,  nisi  in  eo  qui  ex  animo  constet  et  corpore 
caduco  et  infirmo,  postremo  nisi  in  homine  atque 
mortaH.  Quodsi  in  omnibus  his  rebus  obsistis,  quid 
est  quod  te  forma  una  conturbet  ?  His  enim  omni- 
bus  quae  proposui  adiunctis  in  homine  rationem  esse 
et  mentem  videbas  ;  quibus  detractis  deum  tamen 
nosse  te  dicis,  modo  Hniamenta  maneant.  Hoc  est 
non    considerare    sed    quasi    sortiri    quid    loquare. 

99  Nisi  forte  ne  hoc  quidem  attendis,  non  modo  in 
homine  sed  etiam  in  arbore  quicquid  supervacaneum 
sit  aut  usum  non  habeat  obstare.  Quam  molestum 
est  uno  digito  plus  habere  !  Quid  ita }  Quia  nec 
ad  speciem  nec  ad^  usum  aHum  quinque  desiderant. 
Tuus  autem  deus  non  digito  uno  redundat  sed  capite 
coUo  cervicibus  lateribus  alvo  tergo  popHtibus  mani- 
bus  pedibus  feminibus  cruribus.  Si  ut  inmortaHs  sit, 
quid  haec  ad  vitam  membra  pertinent .''  quid  ipsa 
facies  }  Magis  iHa,  cerebrum  cor  puhnones  iecur  : 
haec  enim  sunt  domiciHa  vitae  ;  oris  quidem  habitus 
ad  vitae  firmitatem  nihil  pertinet. 

100  XXXVI.  "  Et  eos  vituperabas  qui  ex  operibus  magni- 
ficis  atque  praeclaris,  cum  ipsum  mundum,  cum  eius 
membra  caelum  terras  maria,  cumque  horum  insignia 
*  ad  .  .  .  ad  om.  A^  B. 

S6 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxxv.— xxxvi. 

Velleius,  if  once  we  embark  on  this  line  of  argument, 
see  how  fiw  it  takes  us.  You  claimed  it  as  axiomatic 
that  reason  can  only  exist  in  human  form  ;  but  some- 
one  else  will  claim  that  it  can  only  exist  in  a  terrestrial 
creature,  in  one  that  has  been  born,  has  gro^vn  up, 
has  been  educated,  consists  of  a  soul  and  a  body 
hable  to  decay  and  disease — in  fine,  that  it  can  only 
exist  in  a  mortal  man.  If  you  stand  out  against  each 
of  these  assumptions,  why  be  troubled  about  shape 
only  ?  Rational  inteUigence  exists  in  man,  as  you 
saw,  only  in  conjunction  with  all  the  attributes  that 
I  have  set  out ;  yet  you  say  that  you  can  recognize 
god  even  with  all  these  attributes  stripped  off,  pro- 
vided  that  the  outward  form  remains.  This  is  not 
to  weigh  the  question,  it  is  to  toss  up  for  what  you 

9  are  to  say.  Unless  indeed  you  happen  never  to  have 
observed  this  either,  that  not  only  in  a  man  but  even 
in  a  tree  whatever  is  superfluous  or  without  a  use 
is  harmful.  What  a  nuisance  it  is  to  have  a  single 
finger  too  many  !  Why  is  this  ?  Because,  given  five 
fingers,  there  is  no  need  of  another  either  for  appear- 
ance  or  for  use.  But  your  god  has  got  not  merely 
one  finger  more  than  he  wants,  but  a  head,  neck, 
spine,  sides,  belly,  back,  flanks,  hands,  feet,  thighs, 
legs.  If  this  is  to  secure  him  immortaUty,  what 
have  these  members  to  do  with  Ufe  ?  What  has  even 
the  face  ?  It  depends  more  on  the  brain,  heart, 
lungs  and  Uver,  for  they  are  the  abode  of  Ufe  :  a 
man's  countenance  and  features  have  nothing  to  do 
with  his  vitaUty. 

0      XXXVI.  "  Then  you  censured  those  who  argued  whyhave 
from  the  splendour  and  the  bcauty  of  creation,  and  fj^nbTff' 
who,  observing  the  workl  itself,  and  the  parts  of  the  theyare 
world,  the  sky  and  earth  and  sea,  and  the  sun,  moon  '°**^  *^® 

97 


CICERO 

solem  lunam  stellasque  vidissent,  cumque  temporum 
maturitates  mutationes  vicissitudinesque  cognovis- 
sent,  suspicati  essent  aliquam  excellentem  esse  prae- 
stantemque  naturam  quae  haec  efFecisset  moveret 
regeret  gubernaret.  Qui  etiam  si  aberrant  a^  con- 
iectura,  video  tamen  quid  sequantur  ;  tu  quod  opus 
tandem  magnum  et  egregium  habes  quod  effectum 
divina  mente  videatur,  ex  quo  esse  deos  suspicere  ? 
*  Habemus '  ^  inquis  '  in  animo  insitam  informationem 
quandam  dei.'  Et  barbati  quidem  lovis,  galeatae 
101  Minervae  :  num  igitur  esse  tahs  putas  ?  Quanto 
mehus  haec  vulgus  imperitorum,  qui  non  membra 
solum  hominis  deo  tribuant  sed  usum  etiam  membro- 
rum.  Dant  enim  arcum  sagittas  hastam  chpeum 
fuscinam  fuhnen,  et  si  actiones  quae  sint  deorum 
non  vident,  nihil  agentem  tamen  deum  non  queunt 
cogitare.  Ipsi  qui  inridentur  Aegyptii  nullam  beluam 
nisi  ob  ahquam  utihtatem  quam  ex  ea  caperent 
consecraverunt ;  velut  ibes  maximam  vim  serpentium 
conficiunt,  cum  sint  aves  excelsae,  cruribus  rigidis, 
corneo  proceroque  rostro  ;  avertunt  pestem  ab 
Aegypto,  cum  volucris  anguis  ex  vastitate  Libyae 
vento  Africo  invectas  interficiunt  atque  consumunt, 
ex  quo  fit  ut  iUae  nec  morsu  vivae  noceant  nec  odore 
mortuae.  Possum  de  ichneumonum  utihtate  de 
crocodilorum  de  faehum  dicere,  sed  nolo  esse  longus. 
Ita  concludam,  tamen  beluas  a  barbaris  propter 
beneficium  consecratas,  vestrorum  deorum  non  modo 
beneficium  nuhum  exstare  sed  ne   factum  quidem 

*  a  om.  Walker,  *  habemus  dett.  :  habebam  A^  B. 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxxvi. 

and  stars  that  adorn  them,  and  discovering  the  laws 
of  the  seasons  and  their  periodic  successions,  con- 
jectured  that  there  must  exist  some  supreme  and 
transcendent  being  who  had  created  these  things, 
and  who  imparted  motion  to  them  and  guided  and 
governed  them.  Though  this  guess  may  be  wide  of 
the  mark,  I  can  see  what  they  are  after  ;  but  as  for 
you,  what  mighty  masterpiece  pray  do  you  adduce 
as  apparently  the  creation  of  divine  intelligence, 
leading  you  to  conjecture  that  gods  exist  ?  *  We 
have  an  idea  of  god  implanted  in  our  minds,'  you  say. 
Yes,  and  an  idea  of  Jupiter  with  a  beard,  and  3vlinerva 
in  a  helmet  ;  but  do  you  therefore  beUeve  that  those 
l  deities  are  really  hke  that  ?  The  unlearned  multitude 
are  surely  wiser  here — they  assign  to  god  not  only 
a  man's  hmbs,  but  the  use  of  those  hmbs.  For  they 
give  him  bow,  arrows,  spear,  shield,  trident,  thunder- 
bolt ;  and  if  they  cannot  see  what  actions  the  gods 
perfomi,  yet  they  cannot  conceive  of  god  as  entirely 
inactive.  Even  the  Egyptians,  whom  we  laugh  at, 
deified  animals  solely  on  the  score  of  some  utiHty 
vvhich  they  derived  from  them  ;  for  instance,  the  ibis, 
bcing  a  tall  bird  with  stiff  legs  and  a  long  horny  beak, 
destroys  a  great  quantity  of  snakes  :  it  protects 
Egypt  from  plague,  by  kiUing  and  eating  the  flying 
serpents  that  are  brought  from  the  Libyan  desert 
by  the  south-west  wind,  and  so  preventing  them  from 
harming  the  natives  by  their  bite  while  ahve  and  their 
stench  when  dead.  I  might  describe  the  utihty  of 
the  ichneumon,  the  crocodile  and  the  cat,  but  I  do 
not  wish  to  be  tedious.  I  will  make  my  point  thus  : 
these  animals  are  at  all  events  deified  by  the  bar- 
barians  for  the  benefits  which  they  confer,  but  your 
gods  not  only  do  no  service  that  you  can  point  to,  but 

99 


CICERO 

102  omniiio.  '  Nihil  habet  '  inquit^  *  negotii.'  Profecto 
Epicurus  quasi  pueri  deUcati  nihil  cessatione  mehus 
existimat.  XXXVII.  At  ipsi  tamen  pueri  etiam  cum 
cessant  exercitatione  aliqua  ludicra  delectantur : 
deum  sic  feriatum  volumus  cessatione  torpere  ut  si 
se  commoverit  vereamur  ne  beatus  esse  non  possit  ? 
Haec  oratio  non  modo  deos  spoliat  motu  et  actione 
divina^  sed  etiam  homines  inertis  efficit,  si  quidem 
agens  aliquid  ne  deus  quidem  esse  beatus  potest. 

103  "  Verum  sit  sane  ut  vultis  deus  effigies  hominis  et 
imago  :  quod  eius  est  domicilium,  quae  sedes,  qui 
locus,  quae  deinde  actio  vitae  ?  quibus  rebus  id  quod 
vultis  beatus  est  ?  Utatur  enim  suis  bonis  oportet  et 
fruatur  qui  beatus  futurus  est.  Nam  locus  quidem 
iis  etiam  naturis  quae  sine  animis  sunt  suus  est  cuique 
proprius,  ut  terra  infimum  teneat,  hanc  inundet  aqua, 
superior  aeri,  aetheriis'  ignibus  altissima  ora  reddatur. 
Bestiarum  autem  terrenae  sunt  aliae,  partim  aquatiles, 
aliae  quasi  ancipites  in  utraque  sede  viventes  ;  sunt 
quaedam  etiam  quae  igne  nasci  putentur  appareant- 

104  queinardentibusfornacibussaepevohtantes.  Quaero 
igitur  vester  deus  primum  ubi  habitet,  deinde  quae 
causa  eum  loco  moveat,  si  modo  movetur  aliquando, 
porro,*  cum  hoc  proprium  sit  animantium  ut  ahquid 
adpetant  quod  sit  naturae  accommodatum,  deus  quid 

^  inquis?  (c/.  §  109)  ed.  '  divina  secl.  Reinhardt. 

'  superior  aeri,  aetheriis  Milller  :  superi  aetheri  B,  superi 
aether  A.  *  porro  Heindorf:  postremo. 

■  This  is  stated  by  Aristotle,  Gen.  An,  iii.  9,  Hist.  An.  v. 
19,  and  Pliny,  N.H.  xi.  42. 
100 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxxvi.— xxxvii. 

02  they  don't  do  anything  at  all.  '  God/  he  says,  *  is  free 
from  trouble.'  Obviously  Epicurus  thinks,  as  spoilt 
children  do,  that  idleness  is  the  best  thing  there  is. 
XXX\'II.  Yet  these  very  children  even  vvhen  idle 
amuse  themselves  with  some  active  game:  are  we  to 
suppose  that  god  enjoys  so  complete  a  hohday,  and 
is  so  sunk  in  sloth,  that  we  must  fear  lest  the  least 
movement  may  jeopardize  his  happiness  ?  This 
language  not  merely  robs  the  gods  of  the  movements 
and  activities  suitable  to  the  divine  nature,  but  also 
tends  to  make  men  slothful,  if  even  god  cannot  be 
happy  when  actively  employed. 

03  "  However,  granting  your  view  that  god  is  ^he  (4)^Bjen  ^^^ 
image  and  the  likeness  of  man,  what  is  his  dwelling-  ^imagRs,' 
place  and  local  habitation  ?  in  what  activities  does  ^j^^^^^^^y^ 
he  spend  his  hfe  ?    what  constitutes  that  happiness  the  reaiity 
which  you  attribute  to  him  ?     For  a  person  who  is  to  l[  S,heif°  ^' 
be  happy  must  actively  enjoy  his  blessings.     As  for  pxistence  aa 
locahty,  even  the  inanimate  elements  each  liave  their  eS-nai 
own  particular  region  :    earth  occupies  the  lowest  t»eings. 
place,  water  covers  the  earth,  to  air  is  assigned  the 

upper  realm,  and  the  ethereal  fires  occupy  the  highest 
confines  of  all.  Animals  again  are  divided  into  those 
that  hve  on  land  and  those  that  Hve  in  the  water, 
while  a  third  class  are  amphibious  and  dwell  in  both 
regions,  and  there  are  also  some  that  are  beheved  to 
be  born  from  fire,  and  are  occasionally  seen  fluttering 

04  about  in  glowing  furnaces.**  About  your  deity  there- 
fore  I  want  to  know,  first,  where  he  dwells  ;  secondly, 
what  motive  he  has  for  moving  in  space,  that  is,  if 
he  ever  does  so  move  ;  thirdly,  it  being  a  special 
characteristic  of  animate  beings  to  desire  some  end 
that  is  appropriate  to  their  nature,  what  is  the  thing 
that  god  desires  ;  fourthly,  upon  what  subject  does  he 

101 


CICERO 

appetat,  ad  quam  denique  rem  motu  mentis  ac  ratione 
utatur,  postremo  quo  modo  beatus  sit  quo  modo 
aeternus.  Quicquid  enim  horum  attigeris/  ulcus  est : 
ita  male  instituta  ratio  exitum  reperire  non  potest. 

105  Sic  enim  dicebas,  speciem  dei  percipi  cogitatione  non 
sensu,  nec  esse  in  ea  ullam  soliditatem,  neque 
eandem  ad  numerum  permanere,  eamque  esse  eius 
visionem  ut  similitudine  et  transitione  cernatur  neque 
deficiat  umquam  ex  infinitis  corporibus  similium^ 
accessio,  ex  eoque  fieri  ut  in  haec  intenta  mens 
nostra  beatam  illam  naturam  et  sempiternam  putet. 
XXXVIII.  Hoc  per  ipsos  deos,  de  quibus  loquimur, 
quale  tandem  est  ?  Nam  si  tantum  modo  ad  cogi- 
tationem  valent  nec  habent  ullam  soliditatem  nec 
eminentiam,  quid  interest  utrum  de  Hippocentauro 
an  de  deo  cogitemus  ?  omnem  enim  talem  conforma- 
tionem  animi  ceteri  philosophi  motum  inanem  vocant, 
vos   autem   adventum  in  animos  et  introitum  ima- 

106  ginum  dicitis.  Ut  igitur^  Ti.  Gracchum  cum  videor 
contionantem^  in  Capitoho  videre  de^  M.  Octavio 
deferentem  sitellam  tum  eum  motum  animi  dico  esse 
inanem,  tu  auteln  et  Gracchi  et  Octavii  imagines  re- 
manere  quae  in  Capitohum  cum  pervenerim^  tum  ad 
animum  meum  referantur' :  hocidem  fieri  in  deo,  cuius 
crebra  facie  pellantur  animi,  ex  quo  esse  beati  atque 

107  aeterni  intellegantur.    Fac  imagines  esse  quibus  pul- 

^  attigeris  dett.  :   attigerit  A,  B,  attigreritis  Beid. 

2  simihum  <imaginum>  Goethe. 

^  igituTsecl.  Madviff.     *  contionans  ?  (?(/,     ^  <ety  de  Bouhier, 

^  perv^enerim  dett. :  pervenerint  ^ ,  B.      '  deferantur  Ernesti, 

"  i.e.,  permanent  identity:   it  does  not  continue  one  and 
the  same. 

"  Perhaps  the  Latin  should  be  altered  to  give  'images: 
just  as,  when  while  making  a  speech  in  the  Capitol  I  seem 
to  see  Tiberius  Gracchus  producing  .  .  .' 
102 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxxvii.— xxxviii. 

employ  his  mental  activity  and  reason  ;  and  lastly, 
how  is  he  happy,  and  how  eternal  ?  For  whiehever 
of  these  questions  you  raise,  you  touch  a  tender  spot. 
An  argument  based  on  such  insecure  premisses  can 

)5  come  to  no  vaUd  conclusion.  Your  assertion  was 
that  the  form  of  god  is  perccived  by  thought  and  not 
by  the  senses,  that  it  has  no  sohdity  nor  numerical 
persistence,"  and  that  our  perception  of  it  is  such 
that  it  is  seen  owing  to  similarity  and  succession, 
a  never-ceasing  stream  of  similar  forms  arri\ang  con- 
tinually  from  the  infinite  number  of  atoms,  and  that 
thus  it  results  that  our  mind,  when  its  attention  is 
fixed  on  these  fomis,  conceives  the  divine  nature  to  be 
happy  and  eternal.  XXXVIII.  Xow  in  the  name  of 
the  very  gods  about  whom  we  are  talking,  what  can 
possibly  be  the  meaning  of  this  ?  If  the  gods  only 
appeal  tothefaculty  of  thought,and  have  nosoHdity  or 
definite  outhne,  what  difference  does  it  make  whether 
we  think  of  a  god  or  of  a  hippocentaur  ?  Such  mental 
pictures  are  called  by  all  other  philosophers  mere 
empty  imaginations,  but  you  say  they  are  the 
arrival    and    entrance    into-^  our    minds    of    certain 

l)6  images.^  Well  then,  when  I  seem  to  see  Tiberius 
Gracclms  in  the  middle  of  his  speech  in  the  Capitol 
producing  the  ballot-box  for  the  vote  on  Marcus 
Octavius,  I  explain  this  as  an  empty  imagination  of 
the  mind,  but  your  explanation  is  that  the  images  of 
Gracchus  and  Octavius  have  actually  remained  on  the 
spot,  so  that  when  I  come  to  the  Capitol  these 
images  are  borne  to  my  mind  ;  the  same  thing 
happens,  you  say,  in  the  case  of  god,  whose  appear- 
ance  repeatedly  impinges  on  men's  minds,  and  so 
gives  rise  to  the  behef  in  happy  and  eternal  deities. 

07  Suppose  that  there  are  such  images  constantly  im- 

103 


CICERO 

sentur  animi :  species  dumtaxat  obicitur  quaedam — 
num  etiam  cur  ea  beata  sit  cur  aeterna  ? 

"  Quae  autem  istae  imagines  vestrae  aut  unde  ? 
A  Democrito  omnino  haec  licentia ;  sed  et  ille 
reprehensus  a  multis  est,  nec  vos  exitum  reperitis, 
totaque  res  vacillat  et  claudicat.  Nam  quid  est 
quod  minus  probari  possit,  quam  omnino^  in  me 
incidere  imagines  Homeri  Archilochi  Romuli 
Numae  Pythagorae  Platonis — nedum  ea^  forma  qua 
illi'  fuerunt  ?  Quo  modo  illae*  ergo  et  quorum 
imagines^  ?  Orpheum  poetam  docet  Aristoteles  num- 
quam  fuisse,  et  hoc  Orphicum  carmen  Pythagorei 
ferunt  cuiusdam  fuisse  Cercopis  ;  at  Orpheus,  id  est 
imago  eius  ut  vos  vultis,  in  animum  meum  saepe 

108  incurrit.  Quid  quod  eiusdem  hominis  in  meum 
aUae,  aliae  in  tuum  ?  quid  quod  earum  rerum  quae 
numquam  omnino  fuerunt  neque  esse  potuerunt, 
ut  Scyllae,  ut  Chimaerae  ?  quid  quod  hominum 
locorum  urbium  earum  quas  numquam  vidimus  ? 
quid  quod  simul  ac  mihi  coUibitum  est  praesto  est 
imago  ?  quid  quod  etiam  ad  dormientem  veniunt  in- 
vocatae?  Tota  res,  Vellei,  nugatoria  est.  Vos  autem 
non  modo  ocuHs  imagines  sed  etiam  animis  inculcatis: 

109  tanta  est  inpunitas  garriendi.  XXXIX.  At  quam 
licenter  !  Fluentium  frequenter  transitio  fit  visio- 
num,  ut  e  multis  una  videatur.    Puderet  me  dicere  non 

*  quam  omnino  Reid :  quam  hominum  dett.f  omnium 
Af  B:  quam  omnium  hominum  P  ed. 

2  nedum  ea  ed.  :   nec  ea  jlld.,  nec  ex  uss. :  nedum  Reid. 
'  ipsi  P  ed.        *  illae  Reid  :  illi.        ^  imagines  secl.  Earle. 

*•  See  note  on  i.  33. 
104 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxxviii.— xxxix. 

pinging  on  our  minds  :  but  that  is  only  the  presenta- 
tion  of  a  certain  form — surely  not  also  of  a  reason  for 
supposing  that  this  form  is  happy  and  eternal  ? 

"  But  what  is  the  nature  of  these  images  of  yours, 
and  whence  do  they  arise  ?  This  extravagance,  it 
is  true,  is  borrowed  from  Democritus  ;  but  he  has 
been  widely  criticized,  nor  can  you  find  a  satisfactory 
explanation,  and  the  whole  affair  is  a  lame  and 
impotent  business.  For  M'hat  can  be  more  improb- 
able  than  that  images  of  Homer,  Archilochus, 
Romulus,  Numa,  Pythagoras  and  Plato  should  im- 
pinge  on  me  at  all — much  less  that  they  should  do 
so  in  the  actual  shape  that  those  men  really  bore  ? 
How  then  do  those  images  arise  ?  and  of  whom  are 
they  the  images  ?  Aristotle  ^  tells  us  that  the  poet 
Orpheus  never  existed,  and  the  Pythagoreans  say 
that  the  Orphic  poem  which  we  possess  was  the  work 
of  a  certain  Cercops  ;  yet  Orpheus,  that  is,  according 
to  you,  the  image  of  him,  often  comes  into  my  mind. 

108  What  of  the  fact  that  different  images  of  the  same 
person  enter  my  mind  and  yours  ?  or  that  images 
come  to  us  of  things  that  never  existed  at  all  and 
never  can  have  existed — for  instance,  Scylla,  and  the 
Chimaera  ?  or  of  people,  places  and  cities  which  we 
have  never  seen  ?  What  of  the  fact  that  I  can  call 
up  an  image  instantaneously,  the  very  moment  that 
I  choose  to  do  so  ?  or  that  they  come  to  me  unbidden, 
even  when  I  am  asleep  ?  Velleius,  the  whole  affair 
is  humbug.     Yet  you  stamp  these  images  not  only 

on  our  eyes  but  also  on  our  minds — so  irresponsibly  Jj^J^^^. 

109  do  you  babble.     XXXIX.  And  how  extravagantly  !  (§  50) 
There   is   a   constant   passage   or   stream   of  visual  ^'faUy 
presentations   which    collectively   produce    a   single  prove  the 
visual  impression.     I  should  be  ashamed  to  say  that  oTman.  *  ^ 

105 


CICERO 

intellegere,  si  vos  ipsi  intellegeretis  qui  ista  defenditis. 
Quo  modo  enim  probas  continenter  imagines  ferri, 
aut  si  continenter  quo  modo  aeternae  ?  *  Innumera- 
bilitas '  inquis^  '  suppeditat  atomorum.'  Num 
eadem  ergo  ista  faciet  ut  sint  omnia  sempiterna  ? 
Confugis  ad  aequilibritatem  (sic  enim  tcrovo/xtai'  si 
placet  appellemus)  et  ais  quoniam  sit  natura  mortalis 
inmortalem  etiam  esse  oportere.  Isto  modo  quoniam 
homines  mortales  sunt  sunt^  aliqui  inmortales,  et 
quoniam  nascuntur  in  terra  nascuntur^  in  aqua. 
*  Et  quia  sunt  quae  interimant,  sunt*  quae  con- 
servent.'     Sint  sane,  sed  ea^  conservent  quae  sunt : 

110  deos  istos  esse  non  sentio.  Omnis  tamen  ista  rerum^ 
effigies  ex  individuis  quo  modo  corporibus  oritur  ? 
quae  etiamsi  essent,  quae  nulla  sunt,  pellere  se  ipsa 
et  agitari'  inter  se  concursu  fortasse  possent,  formare 
figurare  colorare  animare  non  possent.  Nullo  igitur 
modo  inmortalem  deum  efRcitis. 

XL.  "  Videamus  nunc  de  beato.  Sine  virtute  certe 
nuUo  modo  ;  virtus  autem  actuosa,  et  deus  vester  nihil 
agens  ;  expers  virtutis  igitur  ;  ita  ne  beatus  quidem. 

111  Quae  ergo  vita  ?  '  Suppeditatio  '  inquis  '  bono- 
rum  nuUo  malorum  interventu.*  Quorum  tandem 
bonorum  ?  Voluptatum  credo  nempe  ad  corpus 
pertinentium  :    nuUam  enim  novistis  nisi  profectam 

*  inqui^  dett.  :  inquit  A,  B.  ^  sunt  ed. :  sint. 

^  nascuntur  pr.  B,  dett. :  nascantur  A. 

*  sunt  dett.  :  sint  A,  B.  ^  ea  :  ea  quae  dett. 

*  rerum  :  deorum  Goethe.  '  agitare  det. 

"  Perhaps  Cicero  wrote  *  pictures  of  the  gods.' 
106 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xxxix.— xl. 

I  do  not  understand  the  doctrine,  if  you  who  maintain 
it  understood  it  yourselves  !  How  can  you  prove  that 
the  stream  of  images  is  continuous,  or  if  it  is,  how  are 
the  images  eternal  ?  You  say  that  there  is  an  in- 
numerable  supply  of  atoms.  Are  you  going  to  argue 
then  that  everything  is  eternal,  for  the  same  reason  ? 
You  take  refuge  in  the  principle  of  *  equihbrium 
(for  so  with  your  consent  we  will  translate  isojwmia), 
and  you  say  that  because  there  is  mortal  substance 
there  must  also  be  immortal  substance.  On  that 
showing,  because  there  are  mortal  men,  there  are 
also  some  that  are  immortal,  and  because  there  are 
men  born  on  land,  there  are  men  born  in  the 
water.  '  And  because  there  are  forces  of  destruc- 
tion,  there  are  also  forces  of  preservation.'  Suppose 
there  M-ere,  they  would  only  preserve  things  that 
ah-eady  exist  ;  but  I  am  not  aware  that  your  gods  do 

110  exist.  But  be  that  as  it  may,  how  do  all  your 
pictures  of  obj  ects  "  arise  out  of  the  atoms  ?  even  if  the 
atoms  existed,  which  they  do  not,  they  might  con- 
ceivably  be  capable  of  pushing  and  josthng  one 
another  about  by  their  colhsions,  but  they  could  not 
create  form,  shape,  colour,  hfe.  You  fail  entirely 
therefore  to  prove  divine  immortality. 

XL.  "  Now    let    us    consider    divine    happiness. 
Happiness  is  admittedly  impossible  without  virtue.  Howcan 
But  virtue  is  in  its  nature  active,  and  your  god  is  go^^i'"^^' 
entirely  inactive.     Therefore  he  is  devoid  of  virtue.  inactivity 

111  Therefore  he  is  not  happy  either.     In  what  then  does  Sabs^^nce 
his  hfe  consist  ?     '  In  a  constant  succession  of  things  of  virtue), 
good,'  you  reply,  '  without  any  admixture  of  evils.'  pieasuresof 
Things  good — what  things  ?     Pleasures,  I  suppose —  ^°J®'  °^ 
that  is,  of  course,  pleasures  of  the  body,  for  your  constant 
school  recognizes  no  pleasures  of  the  mind  that  do  dL^oiution? 

107 


CICERO 

a  corpore  et  redeuntem  ad  corpus  animi  voluptatem. 
Non  arbitror  te,  Vellei,  similem  esse  Epicureorum 
reliquorum^  quos  pudeat  quarundam  Epicuri  vocum, 
quibus  ille  testatur  se  ne  intellegere  quidem  ullum 
bonum  quod  sit  seiunctum  a  delicatis  et  obscenis 
voluptatibus,   quas   quidem   non   erubescens   perse- 

112  quitur  omnis  nominatim.  Quem  cibum  igitur  aut 
quas  potiones  aut  quas  vocum  aut  florum^  varietates 
aut  quos  tactus  quos  odores  adhibebis  ad  deos,  ut  eos 
perfundas  voluptatibus  ?  Et  poetae  quidem  nectar  am- 
brosiam  <que>'  <in>*  epulas  conparant  et  aut  luventa- 
tem  aut  Ganymedem  pocula  ministrantem,  tu  autem, 
Epicure,  quid  facies  ?  neque  enim  unde  habeat  ista 
deus  tuus  video  nec  quo  modo  utatur.  Locupletior 
igitur  hominum  natura  ad  beate  vivendum  est  quam 
deorum,  quod  pluribus  generibus  fruitur  voluptatum. 

113  At  has  leviores  ducis  voluptates,  quibus  quasi 
titillatio  (Epicuri  enim  hoc  verbum  est)  adhibetur 
sensibus.  Quousque  ludis  ?  Nam  etiam  Philo 
noster  ferre  non  poterat  aspernari  Epicureos  molhs 
et  delicatas  voluptates  ;  summa  enim  memoria 
pronuntiabat  plurimas  Epicuri  sententias  iis  ipsis 
verbis  quibus  erant  scriptae  ;  Metrodori  vero, 
qui  est  Epicuri  collega  sapientiae,  multa^  inpuden- 
tiora  recitabat :  accusat  enim  Timocratem  fratrem 
suum  Metrodorus  quod  dubitet  omnia  quae  ad 
beatam  vitam  pertineant  ventre  metiri,  neque  id 
semel  dicit  sed  saepius.  Adnuere  te  video,  nota 
enim  tibi  sunt ;  proferrem  libros  si  negares.     Neque 

^  aliquorum  Bouhier.         "  colorum  Walker, 
»  add.  Vict.  *  add.  Reid. 

^  multo  f  Plasberg. 

**  His  phrase  was  yapyaXiapiol  ffw/Aaroj  (Athenaeus  xii.  546). 
108 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xl. 

not  arise  from  and  come  back  to  the  body.  I  don't 
suppose  that  you,  Velleius,  are  hke  the  rest  of  the 
Epicureans,  ^vho  are  ashamed  of  certain  utterances 
of  Epicurus,  in  which  he  protests  that  he  cannot  con- 
ceive  any  good  that  is  unconnected  with  the  pleasures 
of  the  voluptuary  and  the  sensuahst,  pleasures  which 
in  fact  he  proceeds  \vithout  a  blush  to  enumerate  by 

12  name.  Well  then,  what  viands  and  beverages,  \vhat 
harmonies  of  music  and  flowers  of  various  hue,  what 
dehghts  of  touch  and  smell  will  you  assign  to  the  gods, 
so  as  to  keep  them  steeped  in  pleasure  ?  The  poets 
array  banquets  of  nectar  and  ambrosia,  with  Hebe  or 
Ganymede  in  attendance  as  cup-bearer  ;  but  what 
will  you  do,  Epicurean  ?  I  don't  see  either  where 
your  god  is  to  procure  these  delights  or  how  he  is  to 
enjoy  them.  It  appears  then  that  mankind  is  more 
bountifully  equipped  for  happiness  than  is  the  deity, 
since  man  can  experience  a  wider  range  of  pleasures. 

13  You  tell  me  that  you  consider  these  pleasures  in- 
ferior,  which  merely  'tickle '  the  senses  (the  expression 
is  that  of  Epicurus").  When  will  you  cease  jesting  ? 
Why,  even  our  friend  Philo  was  impatient  with  the 
Epicureans  for  affecting  to  despise  the  pleasures  of 
sensual  indulgence  ;  for  he  had  an  excellent  memory 
and  could  quote  verbatim  a  number  of  maxims  from 
the  actual  writings  of  Epicurus.  As  for  Metro- 
dorus,  Epicurus's  co-partner  in  philosophy,  he  sup- 
phed  him  with  many  still  more  outspoken  (juotations  ; 
in  fact  Metrodorus  takes  his  brother  Timocrates  to 
task  for  hesitating  to  measure  every  element  of  happi- 
ness  by  the  standard  of  the  belly,  nor  is  this  an 
isolated  utterance,  but  he  repeats  it  several  times. 
I  see  you  nod  your  assent,  as  you  are  acquainted  with 
the  passages  ;  and  did  you  deny  it,  I  would  produce 

109 


CICERO 

nunc  reprehendo  quod  ad  voluptatem  omnia  referan- 
tur  (alia  est  ea  quaestio),  sed  doceo  deos  vestros  esse 
voluptatis  expertes,  ita  vestroiudicio  ne  beatos  quidem . 

114  XLI.  '  At  dolore  vacant.*  Satin  est  id  ad  illam 
abundantem  bonis  vitam  beatissimam  ?  *  Cogitat ' 
inquiunt  *  adsidue  beatum  esse  se ;  habet  enim 
nihil  aUud  quod  agitet  in  mente.'  Conprehende  igitur 
animo  et  propone  ante  oculos  deum  nihil  aHud  in 
omni  aeternitate  nisi  '  Mihi  pulchre  est '  et  '  Ego 
beatus  sum '  cogitantem.  Nec  tamen  video  quo 
modo  non  vereatur  iste  deus  beatus  ne  intereat, 
cum  sine  ulla  intermissione  pulsetur  agiteturque 
atomorum  incursione  sempiterna,  cumque  ex  ipso 
imagines  semper  afluant.  Ita  nec  beatus  est  vester 
deus  nec  aeternus. 

115  "  *  At  etiam  de  sanctitate,  de  pietate  adversus  deos 
hbros  scripsit  Epicurus.'  At  quo  modo  in  his  loqui- 
tur  ?  Ut  T.  Coruncanium  aut  P.  Scaevolam  ponti- 
fices  maximos  te  audire  dicas,  non  eum  qui  sustu- 
lerit  omnem  funditus  rehgionem  nec  manibus  ut 
Xerxes  sed  rationibus  deorum  inmortahum  templa 
et  aras  everterit.  Quid  est  enim,  cur  deos  ab  homi- 
nibus  colendos  dicas,  cum  dei  non  modo  homines  non 

116  colant^  sed  omnino  nihil  curent  nihil  agant  ?  '  At 
est  eorum  eximia  quaedam  praestansque  natura, 
ut  ea  debeat  ipsa  per  se  ad  se  colendam  alhcere 
sapientem.'     An  quicquam  eximium  potest  esse  in 

1  hominibus  non  consnlanL  Manutius. 

•»  Diogenes  Laertius  x.  2\)  mentions  a  treatise  of  Epicurus 
Jlepl  oaioT-rjTOS. 

"  The  Latin  runs  'do  not  worship  men,'  and  perhaps 
should  be  altered  to  give,  '  do  not  study  mcn's  interests.' 

110 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xl.— xli. 

the  volumes.  Not  that  I  am  at  the  moment  criticiz- 
ing  your  making  pleasure  the  sole  standard  of  value — 
that  belongs  to  another  inquiry.  What  I  am  trying 
to  prove  is  that  your  gods  are  incapable  of  pleasure, 
and  therefore  by  your  verdict  can  have  no  happiness 

4  either.  XLI.  *  But  they  are  free  from  pain.'  Does 
that  satisfy  the  ideal  of  perfect  bhss,  overflowing 
with  good  things  ?  '  God  is  engaged  (they  say)  in 
ceaseless  contemplation  of  his  own  happiness,  for  he 
has  no  other  object  for  his  thoughts.'  I  beg  of  you 
to  reahze  in  your  imagination  a  vivid  picture  of  a 
deity  solely  occupied  for  all  eternity  in  reflecting 
'  What  a  good  time  I  am  having  !  How  happy  I 
am  !  '  And  yet  I  can't  see  how  this  happy  god  of 
yours  is  not  to  fear  destruction,  since  he  is  subjected 
without  a  moment's  respite  to  the  buffeting  and 
josthng  of  a  horde  of  atoms  that  eternally  assail  him, 
while  from  his  own  person  a  ceaseless  stream  of 
images  is  given  off.  Your  god  is  therefore  neither 
happy  nor  eternal. 

5  "  *  Yes,  but  Epicurus  actually  >\Tote  books  about  (5)  Epi- 
hohness'*  and  piety.'     But  what  is  the  language  of  p"Jfncipies 
these  books  ?    Such  that  you  think  you  are  hstening  leaiiy  fata, 
to  a  Coruncanius  or  a  Scaevola,  high  priests,  not  to  ° 
the   man   who   destroyed   the   very   foundations   of 
rehgion,   and   overthrew — not   by   main   force    hke 
Xerxes,   but   by    argument — the    temples    and   the 

altars  of  the  immortal  gods.  Why,  what  reason  have 
you  for  maintaining  that  men  owe  worship  to  the 
gods,  if  the  gods  not  only  pay  no  respect  to  men,^  but 
L6  care  for  nothing  and  do  nothing  at  all  ?  '  But  deity 
possesses  an  excellence  and  pre-eminence  Avhich  must 
of  its  ovm.  nature  attract  the  worship  of  the  wise.* 
Now  how  can  there  be  any  excellence  in  a  being  so 

111 


CICERO 

ea  natura  quae  sua  voluptate  laetans  nihil  nec  actura 
sit  umquam  neque  agat  neque  egerit  ?  quae  porro 
pietas  ei  debetur  a  quo  nihil  acceperis  ?  aut  quid 
omnino  cuius  nullum  meritum  sit  ei  deberi  potest  ? 
Est  enim  pietas  iustitia  adversum  deos  ;  cum  quibus 
quid  potest  nobis  esse  iuris,  cum  homini  nulla  cum 
deo  sit  communitas  ?  Sanctitas  autem  est  scientia 
colendorum  deorum  ;  qui  quam  ob  rem  colendi  sint 
non  intellego  nullo  nec  accepto  ab  iis  nec  sperato 

117  bono.  XLII.  Quid  est  autem  quod  deos  veneremur 
propter  admirationem  eius  naturae  in  qua  egregium 
nihil  videmus^  ? 

"  Nam  superstitione,  quod  gloriari  soletis,  facile 
est  liberari  cum  sustuleris  omnem  vim  deorum  ;  nisi 
forte  Diagoram  aut  Theodorum  qui  omnino  deos  esse 
negabant  censes  superstitiosos  esse  potuisse  ;  ego 
ne  Protagoram  quidem,  cui  neutrum  licuerit,  nec  esse 
deos  nec  non  esse.  Horum  enim  sententiae  omnium 
non  modo  superstitionem  tollunt  in  qua  inest  timor 
inanis  deorum,  sed  etiam  reUgionem  quae  deormn 

118  cultu  pio  continetur.  Quid,  ii  qui  dixerunt  totam 
de  dis  inmortahbus  opinionem  fictam  esse  ab  homini- 
bus  sapientibus  rei  pubhcae  causa,  ut  quos  ratio  non 
posset  eos  ad  officium  rehgio  duceret,  nonne  omnem 
rehgionem  funditus  sustulerunt  ?  Quid,  Prodicus 
Cius,  qui  ea  quae  prodessent  hominum  vitae  deorum 

*  videamus  Alan. 


IIS 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xli.— xlii. 

engrossed  in  the  delights  of  his  own  pleasure  that  he 
always  has  been,  is,  and  will  continue  to  be  entirely 
idle  and  inactive  ?  Furthermore  how  can  you  owe 
piety  to  a  person  who  has  bestowed  nothing  upon  you  ? 
or  how  can  you  owe  anything  at  all  to  one  who  has 
done  you  no  service  ?  Piety  is  justice  towards  the 
gods  ;  but  how  can  any  claims  of  justice  exist  be- 
tween  us  and  them,  if  god  and  man  have  nothing  in 
common  ?  HoHness  is  the  science  of  divine  worship  ; 
but  I  fail  to  see  why  the  gods  should  be  worshipped 
if  we  neither  have  received  nor  hope  to  receive  benefit 

17  from  them.  XLII.  On  the  other  hand  what  reason 
is  there  for  adoring  the  gods  on  the  ground  of  our 
admiration  for  the  divine  nature,  if  we  cannot  see 
that  that  nature  possesses  any  special  excellence  ? 

"  As  for  freedom  from  superstition,  which  is  the 
favourite  boast  of  your  school,  that  is  easy  to  attain 
when  you  have  deprived  the  gods  of  all  power  ;  unless 
perchance  you  think  that  it  was  possible  for  Diagoras 
or  Theodorus  to  be  superstitious,  who  denied  the 
existence  of  the  gods  altogether.  For  my  part,  I 
don't  see  how  it  was  possible  even  for  Protagoras, 
who  was  not  certain  either  that  the  gods  exist  or  that 
they  do  not.  For  the  doctrines  of  all  these  thinkers 
abohsh  not  only  superstition,  which  implies  a  ground- 
less  fear  of  the  gods,  but  also  rehgion,  which  consists 

8  in  piously  worshipping  them.  Take  again  those  who 
have  asserted  that  the  entire  notion  of  the  immortal 
gods  is  a  fiction  invented  by  wise  men  in  the  interest  of 
the  state,  to  the  end  that  those  whom  reason  was 
powerless  to  control  might  be  led  in  the  path  of 
duty  by  rehgion  ;  surely  this  view  was  absolutely  and 
entirely  destructive  of  rcHgion.  Or  Prodicus  of  Cos, 
who  said  that  the  gods  were  personifications  of  things 

113 


CICERO 

m  numero  habita  esse  dixit,  quam  tandem  religionem 

119  reliquit  ?  Quid,  qui  aut  fortis  aut  claros  aut  potentis 
viros  tradunt  post  mortem  ad  deos  pervenisse,  eos- 
que  esse  ipsos  quos  nos  colere  precari  venerarique 
soleamus,  nonne  expertes  sunt  religionum  omnium  ? 
quae  ratio  maxime  tractata  ab  Euhemero  est,  quem 
noster  et  interpretatus  et  secutus  est  praeter  ceteros 
Ennius  ;  ab  Euhemero  autem  et  mortes  et  sepul- 
turae  demonstrantur  deorum  ;  utrum  igitur  hic  con- 
firmasse  videtur  rehgionem  an  penitus  totam  sus- 
tuhsse?  Omitto  Eleusinem  sanctam  illam  et 
augustam, 

ubi  initiantur  gentes  orarum  ultimae, 

praetereo  Samothraciam  eaque  quae  Lemni 

nocturno  aditu  occulta  coluntur 
silvestribus  saepibus  densa, 

quibus    explicatis    ad  rationemque  revocatis   rerum 
magis  natura  cognoscitur  quam  deorum. 

120  XLIII.  "  Mihi  quidem  etiam  Democritus  vir 
magnus  in  primis,  cuius  fontibus  Epicurus  hortulos 
suos  inrigavit,  nutare  videtur  in  natura  deorum. 
Tum  enim  censet  imagines  divinitate  praeditas  in- 
esse  in  universitate  rerum,  tum  principia  mentis  quae 
sint^  in  eodem  universo  deos  esse  dicit,  tum  ani- 
mantes  imagines  quae  vel  prodesse  nobis  soleant^  vel 

*  sint  Helndorf :  sunt.  ^  soleant  dett.  :  solent  A^  B. 

"  The  source  of  this  verse  is  unknown. 
*  Probably  from  the  Philoctetes  of  Attius. 

114 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xlii.— xliii. 

bencficial  to  the  life  of  man — pray  what  religion  was 
9  left  by  his  theory  ?  Or  those  who  teach  that  brave 
or  famous  or  powerful  men  have  been  deified  after 
death,  and  that  it  is  these  who  are  the  real  objects 
of  the  M'orship,  prayers  and  adoration  which  we  are 
accustomed  to  oflTer — are  not  they  entirely  devoid 
of  all  sense  of  rehgion  ?  This  theory  was  chiefly 
developed  by  Euhemerus,  who  was  translated  and 
imitated  especially  by  our  poet  Knnius.  Yet  Eu- 
hemerus  describes  the  death  and  burial  of  certain 
gods  ;  are  we  then  to  think  of  him  as  uphoiding 
reiigion,  or  rather  as  utterly  and  entirely  destroy- 
ing  it  ?  I  say  nothing  of  tlie  holy  and  av/e-inspiring 
sanctuary  of  Eleusis, 

Where  tribes  from  earth's  remotest  confines  seek 
Initiation," 

and  I  pass  over  Samothrace  and  those 

occult  mysteries 
Which  throngs  of  worshippers  at  dead  of  night 
In  forest  coverts  deep  do  celebrate  ^* 

at  Lemnos,  since  such  mysteries  when  interpreted 
and  rationahzed  prove  to  have  more  to  do  with  natural 
science  than  with  theologv. 
0      XLIII.  "  For  my  own  part  I  believe  that  even  that  Democritus 
very   eminent  man   Democritus,   the   fountain-head  Ja^?  n?  ^ 
from  which  Epicurus  derived  the  streams  that  watered  theoiogy. 
his  little  garden,  has  no  fixed  opinion  about  the  nature 
of  the  gods.    At  one  moment  he  holds  the  view  that 
the  universe  includes  images  endowed  with  di\  inity  ; 
at  another  he  says  that  there  exist  in  this  same  uni- 
verse   the   elements   from  which  the  mind  is  com- 
pounded,  and  that  these  are  gods  ;    at  another,  that 
they  are  animate  images,  which  are  wont  to  exercise 
a  beneficent  or  harmful  influence  over  us  ;  and  again 

115 


CICERO 

nocere,  tum  ingentis  quasdam  imagines  tantasque 
ut  universum  mundum  conplectantur  extrinsecus. 
Quae    quidem  omnia  sunt  patria    Democriti  quam 

121  Democrito  digniora  ;  quis  enim  istas  imagines  con- 
prehendere  animo  potest,  quis  admirari,  quis  aut 
cultu  aut  religione  dignas  iudicare  ? 

"  Epicurus  vero  ex  animis  hominum  extraxit  radici- 
tus  rehgionem  cum  dis  inmortahbus  et  opem  et 
gratiam  sustuUt.  Cum  enim  optimam  et  praestan- 
tissimam  naturam  dei  dicat  esse,  negat  idem  esse 
in  deo  gratiam  :  toUit  id  quod  maxime  proprium 
est  optimae  praestantissimaeque  naturae.  Quid 
enim  mehus  aut  quid  praestantius  bonitate  et  bene- 
ficentia  ?  Qua  cum  carere  deum  vultis,  neminem 
deo  nec  deum  nec  hominem  carum,^  neminem  ab  eo 
amari,  neminem  diligi  vultis.  Ita  fit  ut  non  modo 
homines  a  deis  sed  ipsi  dei  inter  se  [ab  ahis  alii]*^ 
neglegantur.  XLIV.  Quanto  Stoici  mehus,  qui  a 
vobis  reprehenduntur  :  censent  autem  sapientes 
sapientibus  etiam  ignotis  esse  amicos  ;  nihil  est 
enim  virtute  amabilius,quam  qui  adeptus  erit.ubicum- 

122  que  erit  gentium  a  nobis  dihgetur.  Vos  autem  quid 
maU  datis  cum  <in>^  inbeciUitate  gratificationem  et 
benivolentiam  ponitis  !  Ut  enim  omittam  vim  et 
naturam  deorum,  ne  homines  quidem  censetis  nisi  in- 
beciUi  essent  futuros  beneficos  et  benignos  fuisse  } 
NuUa    est   caritas    naturaUs    inter    bonos  ?      Carum 

^  caruin<esse>  ?  ed.  *  Cobet.  '  Lambinus» 


"  In  the  actual  teaching  of  Democritus  these  scattered 
doctrines  forined  a  consistcnt  whole :  the  basis  of  the  world 
is  particles  of  divine  fire,  floating  in  space;  groups  of  them 
form  deities,  vast  beings  of  long  hfe  but  not  everlasting; 
some  of  the  particles  floating  off  from  these  enter  the  mind, 

116 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xUii.— xliv. 

that  they  are  certain  vast  images  of  such  a  size  as 
to  envelop  and  enfold  the  entire  world."  All  these 
fancies  are  more  worthy  of  Democritus's  native  city^ 

.21  than  of  himself  ;  for  who  could  form  a  mental  picture 
of  such  images  ?  who  could  adore  them  and  deem 
them  worthy  of  worship  or  reverence  ? 

"  Epicurus  however,  in  abohshing    divine  benefi-  Epicurean- 
cence  and  divine  benevolence,  uprooted  and  exter-  d™inla'^ 
minated  all  rehgion  from  the   human  heart.     For  decries 
while  asserting  the  supreme  goodness  and  excellence  benevo- 
of  the  divine  nature,  he  yet  denies  to  god  the  attri-  ^^^^ 
bute  of  benevolence — that  is  to  say,  he  does  away 
with  that  which  is  the  most  essential  element  of 
supreme  goodness  and  excellence.     For  what  can  be 
better  or  more  excellent  than  kindness  and  bene- 
ficence  ?     Make  out  god  to  be  devoid  of  either,  and 
you  make  him  devoid  of  all  love,  affection  or  esteem 
for  any  other  being,  human  or  divine.    It  follows  not 
merely  that  the  gods  do  not  care  for  mankind,  but 
that  tiiey  have  no  care  for  one  another.    XLIV,  How 
much  more  truth  there  is  in  the  Stoics,  whom  you 
censure  !     They  hold  that  all  wise  men  are  friends, 
even  when  strangers  to  each  other,  since  nothing  is 
more  lovable  than  virtue,  and  he  that  attains  to  it 
will  have  our  estecm  in  whatever  country  he  dwells. 

[22  But  as  for  you,  what  mischief  you  cause  when  you 
reckon  kindness  and  benevolence  as  weaknesses  ! 
Apart  altogether  from  the  nature  and  attributes  of 
deity,  do  you  think  that  even  human  beneficcnce  and 
benignity  aresolely  dueto  human  infirmity?  Isthere  no 
natural  affection  between  the  good  ?    There  is  some- 

itself  composed  of  similar  particles,  and  give  us  knowledge 
of  the  gods. 

'  Abdera  in  Thrace  had  a  reputation  for  stupidity. 

117 


CICERO 

ipsum  verbum  est  amoris,  ex  quo  amicitiae  nomen 
est  ductum  ;  quam  si  ad  fructum  nostrum  refere- 
mus^  non  ad  illius  commoda  quem  diligimus,^  non 
erit  ista  amicitia  sed  mercatura  quaedam  utilitatum 
suarum.  Prata  et  arva  et  pecudum  greges  diliguntur 
isto  modo,  quod  fructus  ex  iis  capiuntur.  hominum 
caritas  et  amicitia  gratuita  est ;  quanto  igitur  magis 
deorum,  qui  nulla  re  egentes  et  inter  se  diligunt  et 
hominibus  consulunt.  Quod^  ni*  ita  est,^  quid  venera- 
mur  quid  precamur  deos,  cur  sacris  pontifices  cur 
auspiciis  augures  praesunt,  quid  optamus  a  deis  in- 
mortalibus,  quid  vovemus  ?  *  At  etiam  liber  est 
123  Epicuri  de  sanctitate.'  Ludimur  ab  homine  non 
tam  faceto  quam  ad  scribendi  licentiam  hbero. 
Quae  enim  potest  esse  sanctitas  si  dei  humana  non 
curant,  quae  autem  animans  natura  nihil  curans  ? 
"  Verius  est  igitur  nimirum  illud  quod  familiaris 
omnium  nostrum  Posidonius  disseruit  in  Ubro  quinto 
de  natura  deorum,  nullos  esse  deos  Epicuro  videri, 
quaeque  is  de  deis  inmortalibus  dixerit  invidiae 
detestandae  gratia  dixisse  ;  neque  enim  tam  de- 
sipiens  fuisset  ut  homunculi  similem  deum  fingeret, 
liniamentis  dumtaxat  extremis  non  habitu  sohdo, 
membris  hominis  praeditum  omnibus  usu  membrorum 
ne  minimo  quidem,  exilem  quendam  atque  perluci- 
dum,  nihil  cuiquam  tribuentem  nihil  gratificantem, 

1  referemus  A  :  referiinus  pr.  B, 
2  dilifz-imus  dett.  :  dilifremus. 
^  quod  Mayor  :  quid. 
*  ni  dett.  :  ne  Ay  B.  '  est  ?  Mayor  :  sit 

118 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xliv. 

thing  attractive  in  the  very  sound  of  the  word  *  love/ 
from  which  the  Latin  term  for  friendship  is  derived. 
If  we  base  our  friendship  on  its  profit  to  ourselves, 
and  not  on  its  advantage  to  those  whom  we  love, 
it  will  not  be  friendship  at  all,  but  a  mere  bartering 
of  sehlsh  interests.  That  is  our  standard  of  value  for 
meadows  and  fields  and  herds  of  cattle  :  we  esteem 
them  for  the  profits  that  we  derive  from  them  ; 
but  affection  and  friendship  between  men  is  disin- 
terested ;  how  much  more  so  thercfore  is  that  of  the 
gods,  who,  although  in  need  of  nothing,  yet  both  love 
each  other  and  care  for  the  interests  ot  men.  If  this 
be  not  80,  why  do  we  worship  and  pray  to  them  ? 
why  have  pontiffs  and  augurs  to  preside  over  our  sacri- 
fices  and  auspices  }  w^hy  make  petitions  and  vow 
offerings  to  heaven  }  '  VVhy,  but  Epicurus  (you  tell 
53  me)  actually  wrote  a  treatise  on  hohness.'  Epicurus  Epicums 
is  making  fun  of  us,  though  he  is  not  so  much  a  ^^^jg^y^^o 
humorist  as  a  loose  and  careless  writer.  For  how  can  avoid 
hohness  exist  if  the  gods  pay  no  heed  to  man's  oduim^^ 
affairs  ?  Yet  what  is  the  meaning  of  an  animate 
being  that  pays  no  heed  to  anything  ? 

"  It  is  doubtless  therefore  truer  to  say,  as  the  good 
friend  of  us  all,  Posidonius,  argued  in  the  fifth  book 
of  his  On  the  Nature  of  the  Gods,  that  Epicurus  does 
not  really  beheve  in  the  gods  at  all,  and  that  he  said 
what  he  did  about  the  immortal  gods  only  for  the 
sake  of  deprecating  popular  odium.  Indeed  he  could 
not  have  been  so  senseless  as  really  to  imagine  god  to 
be  hke  a  feeble  human  being,  but  resembhng  him 
only  in  outhne  and  surface,  not  in  sohd  substance, 
and  possessing  all  man's  hmbs  but  entirely  incapable 
of  using  them,  an  emaciated  and  transparent  being, 
showing   no   kindness   or   beneficence   to  anybody, 

119 


CICERO 

omnino  nihil  curantem  nihil  agentem.  Quae  natura 
primum  nulla  esse  potest,  idque  videns  Epicurus  re 
124  tolHt  oratione  reUnquit  deos  ;  deinde  si  maxime 
talis  est  deus  ut  nulla  gratia  nuUa  hominum  caritate 
teneatur,  valeat — quid  enim  dicam  '  propitius  sit  '  ? 
esse  enim  propitius  potest  nemini,  quoniam  ut 
dicitis  omnis  in  inbecillitate  est  et  gratia  et  caritas." 

•  The  formula  of  ceremonious  farewell  to  a  deity,  in  con- 
trast  with  vale,  used  in  taking  leave  of  a  human  being. 


120 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  I.  xliv. 

caring  for  nothing  and  doing  nothing  at  all.  In 
the  first  place,  a  being  of  this  nature  is  an  absolute 
impossibihty,  and  Epicurus  was  aware  of  this,  and 
so  actually  abohshes  the  gods,  although  professedly 
124  retaining  thera.  Secondly,  even  if  god  exists,  yet  is 
of  such  a  nature  that  he  feels  no  benevolence  or 
affection  towards  men,  good-bye  to  him,  say  I — not 
'  God  be  gracious  to  me,' "  why  should  I  say  that  ? 
for  he  cannot  be  gracious  to  anybody,  since,  as  you 
tell  us,  all  benevolence  and  affection  is  a  mark  of 
weakness." 


121 


LIBER  SECUNDUS 

1  I.  Quae  cum  Cotta  dixisset,  tum  Velleius  "  Ne 
ego  "  inquit  "  incautus  qui  cum  Academico  et  eodem 
rhetore  congredi  conatus  sim.  Nam  neque  indi- 
sertum  Academicum  pertimuissem  nec  sine  ista 
philosophia  rhetorem  quamvis  eloquentem  ;  neque 
enim  flumine  conturbor  inanium  verborum,  nec 
subtiUtate  sententiarum  si  orationis  est  siccitas. 
Tu  autem  Cotta  utraque  re  valuisti  ;  corona  tibi 
et  iudices  defuerunt.  Sed  ad  ista  ahas  :  nunc 
Lucilium,  si  ipsi  commodum  est,  audiamus." 

2  Tum  Balbus  :  "  Eundem  equidem  mahm  audire 
Cottam,  dum  qua  eloquentia  falsos  deos  sustulit 
eadem  veros  inducat.  Est  enim  et  philosophi  et 
pontificis  et  Cottae  de  dis  inmortahbus  habere  non 
errantem  et  vagam  ut  Academici  sed  ut  nostri 
stabilem  certamque  sententiam.  Nam  contra  Epi- 
curum  satis  superque  dictum  est.  Sed  aveo  audire 
tu  ipse  Cotta  quid  sentias." 

"  An "   inquit    "  obhtus    es    quid   initio    dixerim, 
faciUus  me,  talibus  praesertim  de  rebus,  quid  non 

•  The  Academic  logic  was  famous. 
122 


BOOK  II 

1  I.    Cotta   having   thus    spoken,  Velleius   replied.  Exposition 
"  I  am  indeed  a  rash  person,"  he  said,  "  to  attempt  to  t^S'^ 
join  issue  \vith  a  pupil  of  the  Academy  "  who  is  also  a  undertaken 
trained  orator.     An  Academic  unversed  in  rhetoric  Baibus!''"^ 
I  should  not  have  been  much  afraid  of,  nor  yet  an 

orator  however  eloquent  who  was  not  reinforced  by 
that  system  of  philosophy  ;  for  I  am  not  disconcerted 
by  a  mere  stream  of  empty  verbiage,  nor  yet  by 
subtlety  of  thought  if  expressed  in  a  jejune  style. 
You  however,  Cotta,  were  strong  in  both  points  ;  you 
only  lacked  a  pubhc  audience  and  a  jury  to  hsten  to 
you.  But  my  answer  to  your  arguments  may  wait 
until  another  time  ;  let  us  now  hear  Lucihus,  if  he 
himself  is  agreeable." 

2  "  For  my  part,"  rejoined  Balbus,  "  I  had  rather 
hsten  to  Cotta  again,  using  the  same  eloquence  that 
he  employed  in  abohshing  false  gods  to  present  a 
picture  of  the  true  ones.  A  philosopher,  a  pontiff  and 
a  Cotta  should  possess  not  a  shifting  and  unsettled 
conception  of  the  immortal  gods,  hke  the  Academics, 
but  a  firm  and  definite  one  like  our  school.  As  for 
refuting  Epicurus,  that  has  been  accomphshed  and 
more  than  accomplished  already.  But  I  am  eager  to 
hear  what  you  tliink  yourself,  Cotta." 

"  Have  you  forgotten,"  said  Cotta,  "  what  I  said 
at  the  outset,  that  I  find  it  more  easy,  especially  on 

123 


CICERO 

3  sentirem  quam  quid  sentirem  posse  dicere  ?  Quodsi 
haberem  aliquid  quod  liqueret,  tamen  te  vicissim 
audire  vellem,  cum  ipse  tam  multa  dixissem." 

Tum  Balbus :  "  Geram  tibi  morem ;  et  agam 
quam  brevissume  potero,  etenim  convictis  Epicuri 
erroribus  longa  de  mea  disputatione  detracta  oratio 
est.  Omnino  dividunt  nostri  totam  istam  de  dis 
inmortalibus  quaestionem  in  partis  quattuor :  pri- 
mum  docent  esse  deos,  deinde  quales  sint,  tum 
mundum  ab  iis  administrari,  postremo  consulere 
eos  rebus  humanis.  Nos  autem  hoc  sermone  quae 
priora  duo  sunt  sumamus  ;  tertium  et  quartum,  quia 
maiora  sunt,  puto  esse  in  aliud  tempus  differenda." 

**  Minime  vero  "  inquit  Cotta  ;  "  nam  et  otiosi 
sumus  et  iis  de  rebus  agimus  quae  sunt  etiam  negotiis 
anteponendae." 

4  II.  Tum  Lucilius  "  Ne  egere  quidem  videtur  " 
inquit  "  oratione  prima  pars.  Quid  enim  potest  esse 
tam  apertum  tamque  perspicuum,  cum  caelum  su- 
speximus  caelestiaque  contemplati  sumus,  quam  esse 
aliquod  numen  praestantissimae  mentis  quo  haec 
regantur  ?  Quod  ni  ita  esset,  qui  potuisset  adsensu 
omnium  dicere  Ennius  : 

Aspice  hoc  sublime  candens,  quem  invocant  omnes  lovem, 

illum  vero  et  lovem  et  dominatorem  rerum  et  omnia 
nutu  regentem  et,  ut  idem  Ennius, 

patrem  divumque  hominumque, 
124 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  i.— ii. 

such  subjects  as  these,  to  say  what  I  don't  think  than 

3  what  I  do  ?  Even  if  I  had  any  clear  view,  I  should 
still  prefer  to  hear  you  speak  in  your  turn,  now  that 
I  have  said  so  much  myself." 

"  Well,"  repHed  Balbus,  "  I  will  yield  to  your  wish  ; 
and  I  shall  be  as  brief  as  I  can,  for  indeed  when  the 
errors  of  Epicurus  have  been  refuted,  my  argument 
is  robbed  of  all  occasion  for  prohxity.     To  take  a  Dinsion  of 
general  view,  the  topic  of  the  immortal  gods  which  StVtiur' 
you  raise  is  divided  by  our  school  into  four  parts  :  partc. 
first  they  prove  that  the  gods  exist  ;   next  they  ex- 
plain  their  nature  ;    then  they  show  that  the  world 
is  governed  by  them ;  and  lastly  that  they  care  for  the 
fortunes  of  mankind.     In  our  present  discourse  how- 
ever  let  us  take  the  first  two  of  these  heads;  the  third 
and  fourth,  being  questions  of  greater  magnitude, 
had  better  I  think  be  put  off  to  another  time." 

"  No,  no,"  cried  Cotta,  '•  we  are  at  leisure  now,  and 
moreover  the  subjects  which  we  are  discussing  might 
fitly  claim  precedence  even  of  matters  of  business." 

4  II.  "  The  first  point,"  resumed  Lucihus,  "  seems  i.  Proofof 
not  even  to  require  arguing.     For  when  we  gaze  up-  exfstelTce* 
ward  to  the  sky  and  contemplate  the  heavenly  bodies,  (§§  4-44). 
what  can  be  so  obvious  and  so  manifest  as  tliat  there  io^s'  e^xist- 
must  exist  some  power  possessincr  transcendent  in-  '^.^^^  proved 

X  ±  o  Ironi  obs6rv« 

teUigence  by  whom  these  things  are  ruled  ?     Were  ation  of  tha 
it  not  so,  how  comes  it  that  the  words  of  Ennius  carry  '^"^^^'«^  i 
conviction  to  all  readers — 

Behold  this  dazzling  vault  of  heaven,  which  all  mankind 
as  Jove  invoke, 

ay,  and  not  only  as  Jove  but  as  sovereign  of  the 
world,  ruhng  all  things  with  his  nod,  and  as  Ennius 
hkewise  says — 

father  of  gods  and  men, 

F  125 


CICERO 

et  praesentem  ac  praepotentem  deum  ?     Quod  qui 
dubitet,  haud  sane  intellego  cur  non  idem  sol  sit  an 

6  nullus  sit  dubitare  possit ;  qui  enim  est  hoc  illo 
evidentius  ?  Quod  nisi  cognitum  conprehensumque 
animis  haberemus,  non  tam  stabiUs  opinio  per- 
maneret  nec  confirmaretur  diuturnitate  temporis  nec 
una  cum  saechs  aetatibusque  hominum  inveterari 
potuisset.  Etenim  videmus  ceteras  opiniones  fictas 
atque  vanas  diuturnitate  extabuisse.  Quis  enim 
Hippocentaurum  fuisse  aut  Chimaeram  putat,  quae- 
ve  anus  tam  excors  inveniri  potest  quae  illa  quae  quon- 
dam  credebantur  apud  inferos  portenta  extimescat  ? 
Opinionis^  enim  commenta  delet  dies.  naturae  iudicia 
confirmat. 

**  Itaque  et  in  nostro  populo  et  in  ceteris  deorum 
cultus  religionumque  sanctitates   exsistunt   in   dies 

6  maiores  atque  meliores,  idque  evenit  non  temere 
nec  casu,  sed  quod  et  praesentes  saepe  di  vim  suam 
declarant,  ut  et  apud  Regillum  bello  Latinorum,  cum 
A.  PostumiusdictatorcumOctavio  MamiHoTusculano 
proeHo  dimicaret,  in  nostra  acie  Castor  et  Pollux  ex 
equis  pugnare  visi  sunt,  et  recentiore  memoria  iidem 
Tyndaridae  Persem  victum  nuntiaverunt.  P.  enim 
Vatinius,  avus  huius  adulescentis,  cum  e^  praefectura 
Reatina  Romam  venienti  noctu  duo  iuvenes  cum 
equis  albis  dixissent  regem  Persem  illo  die  captum, 

*  opinionis  det. :  -ne  A,  B,  -num  B  corr, 
2  <ei>  e  Heindorf. 

126 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  ii. 

a  deity  omnipresent  and  omnipotent  ?  If  a  man 
doubts  this,  I  really  cannot  see  why  he  should  not 
also  be  capable  of  doubting  the  existence  of  tlie  sun  ; 

6  how  is  the  hitter  fact  more  evident  than  the  former  ?  [^^^g^^°™ 
Nothing  but  the  presence  in  our  minds  of  a  firmly  sensns  of 
grasped  concept  of  the  deity  could  account  for  the  mankmd ; 
stabiHty   and  permanence   of  our  behef  in  him,   a 
behef  which  is  only  strengthened  by  the  passage  of 
the  ages  and  grows  more  deeply  rooted  with  each 
successive  generation  of  mankind.     In  every  other 
case  we  see  that  fictitious  and  unfounded  opinions 
have  dwindled  away  with  lapse  of  time.     Who  be- 
heves  that  the  Hippocentaur  or  the  Chimaera  ever 
existed  ?    Where  can  you  find  an  old  wife  senseless 
enough  to  be  afraid  of  the  monsters  of  the  lower 
world  that  were  once  beheved  in  ?    The  years  obhter- 
ate  the  inventions  of  the  imagination,  but  confirm  the 
judgements  of  nature. 

"  Hence  bothinourown  nation  and  among  allothers 
reverence  for  the  gods  and  respect  for  rehgion  grow 

6  continually  stronger  and  more  profound.  Nor  is  this  (3)  from 
unaccountable  or  accidental ;  it  is  the  result,  firstly,  epiphanies; 
of  the  fact  that  the  gods  often  manifest  their  power 
in  bodily  presence.  For  instance  in  the  Latin  War, 
at  the  critical  battle  of  Lake  Regillus  between  the 
dictator  Aulus  Postumius  and  Octavius  Mamihus  of 
Tusculum,  Castor  and  PoUux  were  seen  fighting  on 
horseback  in  our  ranks.  And  in  more  modern  history 
hkewise  these  sons  of  Tyndareus  brought  the  news 
of  the  defeat  of  Perses.  What  happened  was  that 
Pubhus  Vatinius,  the  grandfather  of  our  young  con- 
temporary,  was  returning  to  Rome  by  night  from 
Reate,  of  which  he  was  governor,  when  he  was  in- 
formed  by  two  young  warriors  on  white  horses  that 

127 


CICERO 

<cuin>^  senatui^  nuntiavisset,^  primo  quasi  temere 
de  re  publica  locutus  in  carcerem  coniectus  est,  post 
a  Paulo  litteris  allatis  cum  idem  dies  constitisset,  et 
agro  a  senatu  et  vacatione  donatus  est.  Atque  etiara 
cum  ad  fluvium  Sagram  Crotoniatas  Locri  maximo 
proelio  devicissent,  eo  ipso  die  auditam  esse  eam 
pugnam  ludis  Olympiae  memoriae  proditum  est. 
Saepe  Faunorum  voces  exauditae,  saepe  visae  formae 
deorum  quemvis  non  aut  hebetem  aut  impium  deos 
praesentes  esse  confiteri  coegerunt. 
7  III.  "  Praedictiones  vero  et  praesensiones  rerum 
futurarum  quid  aliud  declarant  nisi  hominibus*  ea 
quae  futura^  sint  ostendi  monstrari  portendi  prae- 
dici  ?  ex  quo  illa  ostenta  monstra  portenta  prodigia 
dicuntur.  Quodsi  ea*  ficta  credimus  hcentia  fabu- 
larum,  Mopsum  Tiresiam  Amphiaraum  Calchantem 
Helenum  (quos  tamen  augures  ne  ipsae  quidem 
fabulae  adscivissent  si  res  omnino  repudiaret),  ne 
domesticis  quidem  exempHs  docti  numen  deorum 
conprobabimus  ?  Nihil  nos  P.  Claudi  bello  Punico 
primo  temeritas  movebit  ?  qui  etiam  per  iocum  deos 
Inridens,  cum  cavea  Hberati  pulh  non  pascerentur 
mergi  eos  in  aquam  iussit,  ut  biberent  quoniam  esse 
nollent ;  qui  risus  classe  devicta  multas  ipsi  lacrimas, 

*  add.  Vahlen.  ^  senatuique  dett. 

*  nuntiavit  ct  det.       *  hominibus  <divinitus>  Brieger, 
*  futura  om.  Ay  B  (quae  .  .  .  sint  om.  edd.). 
•  externa  lleindorf. 


12S 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  ii.— iii. 

King  Pcrses  had  that  very  day  been  taken  prisoner. 
Whcn  Vatinius  can-ied  the  news  to  the  Senate,  at 
first  he  was  flung  into  gaol  on  the  charge  of  spreading 
an  unfoundcd  report  on  a  niatter  of  national  concern  ; 
but  afterwards  a  dispatcli  arrived  from  Pauhis,  and 
the  date  was  found  to  tally,  so  the  Senate  bestowed 
upon  Vatinius  both  a  grant  of  land  and  exemption 
from  mihtary  service.  It  is  also  recorded  in  history 
that  when  the  Locrians  v.on  their  great  victory  over 
the  people  of  Crotona  at  the  important  battle  of  the 
River  Sagra,  news  of  the  engagement  was  reported 
at  the  Olympic  Games  on  the  very  same  day.  Often 
has  the  sound  of  the  voices  of  the  Fauns,  often  has 
the  apparition  of  a  di\"ine  form  compelled  anyone 
that  is  not  either  feeble-minded  or  impious  to  admit 
tlie  real  presence  of  the  gods. 

III.  "  Again,prophecies  and  premonitions  of  future  (4)  from  the 
events  cannot  but  be  taken  as  proofs  that  the  future  dlvL^ation, 
may  appear  or  be  foretokl  as  a  warning  or  portended 
or  predicted  to  mankind — hence  the  very  words 
'  apparition,'  *  warning,'  *  portcnt,'  '  prodigy.'  Even 
if  we  think  that  the  stories  of  Mopsus,  Tiresias, 
Amphiaraus,  Calchas  and  Helenus  are  mere  baseless 
fictions  of  romance  (though  their  powers  of  divination 
would  not  even  have  been  incorporated  in  the  legends 
had  they  been  entirely  repugnant  to  fact),  shall  not 
even  the  instances  from  our  own  native  history  teach 
us  to  acknowledge  the  divine  power  ?  shall  we  be 
unmoved  by  the  story  of  the  recklessness  of  Pubhus 
Claudius  in  the  first  Punic  War  ?  Claudius  merely 
in  jest  mocked  at  the  gods  :  when  the  chickens  on 
being  released  from  their  cage  refuscd  to  feed,  he 
ordered  them  to  be  thrown  into  the  water,  so  that  as 
they  would  not  eat  they  might  drink  ;   but  the  joke 

129 


CICERO 

magnam  populo  Romano  cladem  attulit.  Quid  ? 
collega  eius  lunius  eodem  bello  nonne  tempestate 
classem  amisit  cum  auspiciis  non  paruisset  ?  Itaque 
Claudius  a  populo  condemnatus  est,  lunius  necem 

8  sibi  ipse  conscivit.  C.  Flaminium  Caelius  religione 
neglecta  cecidisse  apud  Trasumenum  scribit  cum 
magno  rei  publicae  vulnere.  Quorum  exitio  intellegi 
potest  eorum  imperiis  rem  publicam  amplificatam 
qui  religionibus  paruissent.  Et  si  conferre  volumus 
nostra  cum  externis,  ceteris  rebus  aut  pares  aut 
etiam  inferiores  reperiemur,  religione  id  est  cultu 

9  deorum  multo  superiores.  An  Atti  Na\-ii  lituus 
ille,  quo  ad  investigandum  suem  regiones  vineae  ter- 
minavit,  contemnendus  est  ?  Crederem,  nisi  eius 
augurio  rex  Hostilius  maxima  bella  gessisset.  Sed 
neglegentianobilitatis  augurii  disciplina  omissa  veritas 
auspiciorum  spreta  est.  species  tantum  retenta  ;  ita- 
que  maximae  rei  publicae  partes,  in  his  bella  quibus 
rei  publicae  salus  continetur,  nullis  auspiciis  admini- 
strantur,  nulla  peremnia  servantur,  nulla  ex  acumini- 
bus,  nuUa  cum^  viri  vocantur  (ex  quo  in  procinctu 

^  nulla  cum  Schdmann  :  nulli. 

"  Cicero's  memory  has  played  him  false  over  suem  and 
uvam.  In  Liv.  i.  3,  ii.  80,  he  says  Attus  (in  the  reign  of 
Tar(|uinius  Priscus)  had  vowed  to  the  Lares  the  largestbunch 
of  grapes  in  his  vineyard  if  he  found  a  strayed  pig.  He 
foiiud  it,  and  then  discovered  by  augury  in  which  quarter 
of  the  vineyard  to  look  for  the  largest  bunch. 
130 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  iii. 

cost  the  jester  himself  many  tears  and  the  Roman 
people  a  great  disaster,  for  the  fleet  was  severely 
defeated.  Moreover  did  not  his  coUeague  Juniiis 
during  the  same  war  lose  his  fleet  in  a  storm  after 
faihng  to  comply  with  the  auspices  ?  In  consequence 
of  these  disasters  Claudius  was  tried  and  condemned 
for    high    treason    and    Junius    committed    suicide. 

1  Caehus  writes  that  Gaius  Flaminius  after  ignoring 
the  claims  of  religion  fell  at  the  battle  of  Trasimene, 
when  a  serious  blow  was  inflicted  on  the  state.  The 
fate  of  these  men  may  serve  to  indicate  that  our 
empire  was  won  by  those  commanders  w^ho  obeyed 
the  dictates  of  rehgion.  Moreover  if  we  care  to 
compare  our  national  cliaracteristics  with  those  of 
foreign  peoples,  we  shall  flnd  that,  while  in  all  other 
respects  we  are  only  the  equals  or  even  the  inferiors 
of  others,  yet  In  the  sense  of  rehgion,  that  is,  in 

)  reverence  for  the  gods,  we  are  far  superior.  Or  are 
we  to  make  ho;ht  of  the  famous  auffural  staff  of  Attus 
Navius,  wherewith  he  marked  out  the  vineyard  into 
sections  for  the  purpose  of  discovering  the  pig  <^  ?  I 
would  agree  that  we  might  do  so,  had  not  King 
HostiUus  fought  great  and  glorious  wars  under  the 
guidance  of  Attus's  augury.  But  owing  to  the  care- 
lessness  of  our  nobihty  the  augural  lore  has  been  for- 
gotten,  and  the  reahty  of  the  auspices  has  fallen  into 
contempt,  only  the  outward  show  being  retained  ; 
and  in  consequence  highly  important  departments  of 
pubhc  administration,  and  in  particular  the  conduct 
of  wars  upon  which  the  safety  of  the  state  depends, 
are  carried  on  without  any  auspices  at  all  ;  no  taking 
of  omens  when  crossing  rivers,  none  when  hghts 
flash  from  the  points  of  the  javehns,  none  when  men 
are  called  tc  ai-ras  (owing  to  which  wiils  made   on 

131 


CICERO 

testamenta  perierunt,  tum  enim  bella  gerere  nostri 

10  duces  incipiunt  cum  auspicia  posuerunt).  At  vero 
apud  maiores  tanta  religionis  vis  fuit  ut  quidam  im- 
peratores  etiam  se  ipsos  dis  inmortalibus  capite  velato 
verbis  certis  pro  re  publica  devoverent.  Multa  ex 
Sibyllinis  vaticinationibus  multa  ex  haruspicum  re- 
sponsis  commemorare  possum  quibus  ea  confirmen- 
tur  quae  dubia  nemini  debent  esse.  IV.  Atqui 
et  nostrorum  augurum  et  Etruscorum  haruspicum 
disciplinam  P.  Scipione^  C.  Figulo  consulibus  res  ipsa 
probavit ;  quos  cum  Ti.  Gracchus  consul  iterum 
crearet,  primus  rogator  ut  eos  rettuHt  ibidem  est 
repente  mortuus.  Gracchus  cum  comitia  nihilo 
minus  peregisset  remque  illam  in  rehgionem  populo 
venisse  sentiret,  ad  senatum  rettuht.  Senatus  '  quos 
ad  soleret '  referendum  censuit.  Haruspices  intro- 
ducti   responderunt   non   fuisse   iustum   comitiorum 

11  rogatorem.  Tum  Gracchus,  ut  e  patre  audiebam, 
incensus  ira  :  '  Itane  vero  ?  ego  non  iustus,  qui  et 
consul  rogavi  et  augur  et  auspicato  ?  an  vos  Tusci  ae 
barbari  auspiciorum  popuh  Romani  ius  tenetis  et 
interpretes  esse  comitiorum  potestis  ?  '  Itaque  tum 
illos  exire  iussit  ;  post  autem  e  provincia  litteras  ad 
collegium  misit  se  cum  legeret  hbros  recordatum  esse 

^  <in>  P.  Scipione  <et>  Bouhler. 


°  The  Etruscans  diffcred  from  the  Graeco-Italic  races  in 
cii^-toms,  rehgion,  and  language. 
132 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  iii.— iv. 

active  service  have  gone  out  of  existence,  since  our 
generals  only  enter  on  their  mihtary  command 
when  they  have  laid  do^\Ti  their  augural   powers). 

10  But  among  our  ancestors  rehgion  was  so  powerful 
that  some  commanders  actually  offered  themsclves 
as  victims  to  the  immortal  gods  on  behalf  of  the 
state,  veihng  their  heads  and  formally  vo^lng  them- 
selves  to  death.  I  could  quote  numerous  passages 
from  the  Sibyhine  prophecies  and  from  the  oracles 
of  soothsayers  in  confirmation  of  facts  that  no  one 
really  ought  to  question.  IV.  Why,  in  the  consul- 
ship  of  Publius  Scipio  and  Gaius  Figulus  both  our 
Roman  augural  lore  and  that  of  the  Etruscan  sooth- 
sayers  were  confirmed  by  the  evidence  of  actual  fact. 
Tiberius  Gracchus,  then  consul  for  the  second  timc, 
was  holding  the  election  of  his  successors.  The  first 
returning  officer  in  the  very  act  of  reporting  the 
persons  named  as  elected  suddenly  fell  dead.  Grac- 
chus  nevertheless  proceeded  with  the  election.  Per- 
ceiving  that  the  scruples  of  the  pubhc  had  been 
aroused  by  the  occurrence,  he  referred  the  matter  to 
the  Senate.  The  Senate  voted  that  it  be  referred 
*  to  the  customary  ofiicials.'  Soothsayers  were  sent 
for,  and  pronounced  that  the  returning  officer  for  the 

11  clectionshadnotbeeninorder.  ThereuponGracchus, 
so  my  father  used  to  tell  me,  burst  into  a  rage. 
'  How  now  }  '  he  cried,  '  was  I  not  in  order  ?  I  put 
the  names  to  the  vote  as  consul,  as  augur,  and  with 
aus]^ices  taken.  Who  are  you,  Tuscan  barbarians,"  to 
know  the  Roman  constitution,  and  to  be  able  to  lay 
down  the  law  as  to  our  elections  .''  '  And  accordingly 
he  then  sent  them  about  their  business.  Afterwards 
however  he  sent  a  dispatch  fron\  his  province  to  the 
CoUege  of  Augurs  to  say  that  while  reading  the  sacrcd 

133 


CICERO 

vitio  sibi  tabernaculum  captum  fuisse  hortos^  Scipio- 
nis,  quod  cum  pomerium  postea  intrasset  habendi 
senatus  causa  in  redeundo  cum  idem  pomerium 
transiret  auspicari  esset  oblitus  ;  itaque  vitio  creatos 
consules  esse.  Augures  rem  ad  senatum  ;  senatus  ut 
abdicarent  consules  ;  abdicavcrunt.  Quae  quae- 
rimus  exempla  maiora  ?  Vir  sapientissimus  atque 
haud  sciam  an  omnium  praestantissimus  peccatum 
suum  quod  celari  posset  confiteri  maluit  quam  haerere 
in  re  publica  religionem,  consules  summum  imperiura 
statim  deponere  quam  id  tenere  punctum  temporis 

12  contra  rehgionem.  Magna  augurum  auctoritas  ; 
quid,  haruspicum  ars  nonne  divina  ?  Haec  et 
innumerabilia  ex  eodem  genere  qui  videat  nonne 
cogatur  confiteri  deos  esse  ?  Quorum  enim  inter- 
pretes  sunt  eos  ipsos  esse  certe  necesse  est ;  deorum 
autem  interpretes  sunt ;  deos  igitur  esse  fateamur. 
At  fortasse  non  omnia  eveniunt  quae  praedicta  sunt. 
Ne  aegri  quidem  quia  non  omnes  convalescunt 
idcirco  ars  nulla  medicina  est.  Signa  ostenduntur  a 
dis  rerum  futurarum  ;  in  his  si  qui  erraverunt,  non 
deorum  natura  sed  hominum  coniectura  peccavit. 

"  Itaque    inter    omnis    omnium    gentium    summa 
constat  ;    omnibus   enim  innatum   est  et  in  animo 

13  quasi  insculptum  esse  deos.     V.  Quales  sint  varium 

^  ^ad>  hortos  Schomann,  in  hortis  Lainhinus. 

"  The  validity  of  the  military  auspices  expired  when  the 
magistrates  returned  within  the  city. 
134 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  iv. 

books  it  had  come  to  his  mind  that  there  had  been 
an  irregularity  when  he  took  Scipio's  park  as  the  site 
for  his  augural  tent,  for  he  had  subsequently  entered 
the  city  bounds  to  hold  a  meeting  of  the  Senate  and 
when  crossing  the  bounds  again  on  his  return  had  for- 
gotten  to  take  the  auspices  '^  ;  and  that  therefore  the 
consuls  had  not  been  duly  elected.  The  CoUege  of 
Augurs  referred  the  matter  to  the  Senate ;  the  Senate 
decided  that  the  consuls  must  resign  ;  they  did  so. 
What  more  striking  instances  can  we  demand  ?  A 
man  of  the  greatest  wisdom  and  I  may  say  unrivalled 
distinction  of  character  preferred  to  make  pubUc  con- 
fession  of  an  ofFence  that  he  might  have  concealed 
rather  than  that  the  stain  of  impiety  should  cUng  to 
the  commonwealth  ;  the  consuls  preferred  to  retire 
on  the  spot  from  the  highest  office  of  the  state  rather 
than  hold  it  for  one  moment  of  time  in  viokation  of 
12  rehgion.  The  augur's  office  is  one  of  high  dignity  ; 
surely  the  soothsayer's  art  also  is  divinely  inspired. 
Is  not  one  who  considers  these  and  countless  similar 
facts  compelled  to  admit  that  the  gods  exist  ?  If  there 
be  persons  who  interpret  the  will  of  certain  beings, 
it  follows  that  those  bcings  must  themselves  exist ; 
but  there  are  persons  who  interpret  the  will  of  the 
gods ;  therefore  we  must  admit  that  the  gods  exist. 
But  perhaps  it  may  be  argued  that  not  all  prophecies 
come  true.  Nor  do  all  sick  persons  get  well,but  that 
does  not  prove  that  there  is  no  art  of  medicine.  Signs 
of  future  events  are  manifested  by  the  gods  ;  men 
may  have  mistaken  these  signs,  but  the  fault  lay  with 
man's  powers  of  inference,  not  with  the  divine  nature. 
"  Hence  the  main  issue  is  agreed  among  all  men 
of  all  nations,  inasmuch  as  all  have  engraved  in 
their  minds  an  innate    belief  that   the  gods  exist. 

135 


CICERO 

est,  esse  nemo  negat.  Cleanthes  quidem  noster 
quattuor  de  causis  dixit  in  animis  hominum  infor- 
matas  deorum  esse  notiones.  Primam  posuit  eam 
de  qua  modo  dixi,  quae  orta  esset  ex  praesensione 
rerum  futurarum  ;  alteram,  quam  ceperimus^  ex 
magnitudine  commodorum  quae  percipiuntur  caeh 
temperatione  fecunditate  terrarum  aharumque  com- 

14  moditatum  conplurium  copia  ;  tertiam,  quae  terreret 
animos  fuhiiinibus  tempestatibus  nimbis  nivibus 
grandinibus  vastitate  pestilentia  terrae  motibus  et 
saepe  fremitibus  lapideisque  imbribus  et  guttis 
imbrium  quasi  cruentis,  tum  labibus  aut  repentinis 
terrarum  hiatibus,  tum  praeter  naturam  hominum 
pecudumque  portentis,  tum  facibus  visis  caelestibus, 
tum  stelhs  iis  quas  Graeci  cometas  nostri  cincinnatas 
vocant,  quae  nuper  beho  Octaviano  magnarum  fue- 
runt  calamitatum  praenuntiae,  tum  sole  geminato, 
quod  ut  e  patre  audivi  Tuditano  et  Aquiho  consuhbus 
evenerat,  quo  quidem  anno  P.  Africanus  sol  alter 
extinctus  est,  quibus  exterriti  homines  vim  quandam 

15  esse  caelestem  et  divinam  suspicati  sunt  ;  quartam 
causam  esse  eamque  vel  maximam  aequabihtatem 
motus  conversionumque^  caeh,  sohs  lunae  siderumque 
omnium  distinctionem  varietatem  pulchritudinem 
ordinem,  quarum  rerum  aspectus  ipse  satis  indicaret 
non  esse  ea  fortuita.     Ut,  si  quis  in  domum  ahquam 

^  caperemus  Bake. 

'  conversionumque  Ernesti :  conversionem  Mss.  :  <con- 
stantiamque>  conversionum  Regenhart. 

"  Gn.  Octavius,  cos.  87  b.c,  was  a  partisan  of  Sulla,  who 
was  then  at  war  with  Mitliridates;  the  otlier  consul  Cinna 
supported  Marius.  Fighting  took  place  between  them  and 
Octavius  fell. 

**  The  proscriptions  of  Marius  and  Sulla. 
136 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  v. 

13  y.  As  to  their  nature  there    are   various    opinions, 

but    their    existence    nobody    denies.      Indeed    our  (=>)  Ckjn- 
master  Cleanthes  gave  four  reasons  to  account  for  the  ^nankimf 
formation  in  men's  minds  of  their  ideas  of  the  gods.  expiainedby 
He  put  first  the  argument  of  which  I  spoke  just  now, 
the    one  arising  from  our  foreknowledge  of  future 
events  ;   second,  the  one  drawn  from  the  magnitude 
of  the  benefits  which  we  derive  from  our  temperate 
chmate,  from  the  earth's  fertihty,  and  from  a  vast 

14  abundance  of  other  blessings  ;  third,  the  awe  in- 
spired  by  hghtning,  storms,  rain,  snow,  hail,  floods, 
pestilences,  earthquakes  and  occasionally  subter- 
ranean  rumbhngs,  showers  of  stones  and  raindrops  the 
colour  of  blood,  also  landshps  and  chasms  suddenly 
opening  in  the  ground,  also  unnatural  monstrosities 
human  and  animal,  and  also  the  appearance  of 
meteoric  lights  and  what  are  called  b^^  the  Greeks 
'  comets,'  and  in  our  language  *  long-haired  stars,' 
such  as  recently  during  the  Octavian  War  "  appeared 
as  harbingers  of  dire  disasters,^  and  the  doubhng  of 
the  sun,  which  my  father  told  me  had  happened  in 
the  consulship  of  Tuditanus  and  AquiUus,  the  year*'  in 
which  the  hght  was  quenched  of  Pubhus  Africanus, 
that  second  sun  of  Rome  :  all  of  which  ahirming 
portents    have  suggested    to   mankind   the    idea  of 

15  the  existence  of  some  celestial  and  divine  power.  And 
the  fourth  and  most  potent  cause  of  the  behef  he  said 
was  the  uniform  motion  and  revolution  of  the  heavens, 
and  the  varied  groupings  and  ordered  beauty  of  the 
sun,  moon  and  stars,  the  very  sight  of  which  was  in 
itself  enough  to  prove  that  these  things  are  not  the 
mere  effect  of  chance.    When  a  man  goes  into  a  house, 

•  129  B.c.    He  was  found  dead  in  his  bed,but  the  murderer 
was  not  discovercd  ;  c/.  iii.  80. 

137 


CICERO 

aut  in  gymnasium  aut  in  forum  venerit,  cum  videat 
omnium  rerum  rationem  modum  disciplinam  non 
possit  ea  sine  causa  fieri  iudicare  sed  esse  aliquem 
intellegat  qui  praesit  et  cui  pareatur,  multo  magis 
in  tantis  motionibus  tantisque  vicissitudinibus,  tam 
multarum  rerum  atque  tantarum  ordinibus,  in  quibus 
nihil  umquam  inmensa  et  infinita  vetustas  mentita 
sit,  statuat  necesse  est  ab  aliqua  mente  tantos  naturae 
motus  gubernari. 

16  VI.  "  Chrysippus  quidem,  quamquam  est  acerrimo 
ingenio,  tamen  ea  dicit  ut  ab  ipsa  natura  didicisse 
non  ut  ipse  repperisse  videatur.  '  Si  enim  * 
inquit  *  est  aliquid  in  rerum  natura  quod  hominis 
mens  quod  ratio  quod  vis  quod  potestas  humana 
efficere  non  possit,  est  certe  id  quod  illud  efficit 
homine  meUus  ;  atqui  res  caelestes  omnesque  eae 
quarum  est  ordo  sempiternus  ab  homine  confici 
non  possunt ;  est  igitur  id  quo^  illa  conficiuntur 
homine  meUus  ;  id  autem  quid  potius  dixeris  quam 
deum  ?  Etenim  si  di  non  sunt,  quid  esse  potest 
in  rerum  natura  homine  mehus  ?  in  eo  enim  solo 
est  ratio,  qua  nihil  potest  esse  praestantius  ;  esse 
autem  hominem  qui  nihil  in  omni  mundo  meHus 
esse  quam  se  putet  desipientis  adrogantiae  est ; 
ergo  est  ahquid  meUus  ;    est  igitur  profecto  deus.* 

17  An  vero  si  domum  magnam  pulchramque  videris 
non  possis  adduci  ut  etiamsi  dominum  non  videas 

*  a  quo  dett, 
138 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  v.— vi. 

a  ^vrestling-school  or  a  public  assembly  and  observes 
in  all  that  goes  on  arrangement,  regularity  and 
system,  he  cannot  possibly  suppose  that  these  things 
come  about  without  a  cause  :  he  reaUzes  that  there 
is  someone  who  presides  and  controls.  Far  more 
therefore  with  the  vast  movements  and  phases  of  the 
heavenly  bodies,  and  these  ordered  processes  of  a 
multitude  of  enormous  masses  of  matter,  which 
throughout  the  countless  ages  of  the  infinite  past  have 
never  in  the  smallest  degree  played  false,  is  he  com- 
pelled  to  infer  that  these  mighty  world-motions  are 
regulated  by  some  Mind. 

16  VI.  "  Extremely  acute  of  intellect  as  is  Chrysippus,  (6)  Proof  of 
nevertheless  his  utterance  here  might  well  appear  to  ^iJg  „^ilf^?JJse 
have  been  learnt  from  the  very  lips  of  Nature,  and  not  3how.s  the 
discovered  by  himself.    '  If  (he  says)  there  be  some-  more  than° 
thing  in   the   world   that   man's   mind   and   huvnan  iiuman 
reason,  strength  and  power  are  incapable  of  produc- 

ing,  that  which  produces  it  must  necessarily  be 
superior  to  man  ;  now  the  heavenly  bodies  and  all 
those  things  that  display  a  never-ending  regularity 
cannot  be  created  by  man  ;  therefore  that  which 
creates  them  is  superior  to  man  ;  yet  what  better 
name  is  there  for  this  than  "  god  "  ?  Indeed,  if  gods 
do  not  exist,  what  can  there  be  in  the  universe 
superior  to  man  ?  for  he  alone  possesses  reason,  which 
is  the  most  excellent  thing  that  can  exist  ;  but  for 
any  human  being  in  existence  to  think  that  there  is 
nothing  in  the  whole  world  superior  to  himself  would 
be  an  insane  piece  of  arrogance  ;  therefore  there  is 
something  superior  to  man  ;     therefore   God   does  (7)  The 

17  exist.'     Again,  if  you  see  a  spacious  and  beautiful  g^^j['p®J  JJ^. 
house,  you  could  not  be  induced  to  beheve,  even  super- 
though  you  could  not  see  its  master,  that  it  was  built  inli^bitants. 

139 


CICERO 

muribus  illam  et  mustelis  aedificatam  putes: — taii' 
tum  ergo  ornatum  mundi,  tantam  varietatem  pul- 
chritudinemque  rerum  caelestium,  tantam  vim  et 
magnitudinem  maris  atque  terrarum  si  tuum  ac  non 
deorum  inmortalium  domicilium  putes,  nonne  plane 
desipere  ^-ideare  ?  An  ne  hoc  quidem  intellegimus, 
omnia  supera  esse  mehora,  terram  autem  esse 
infimam,  quam  crassissimus  circumfundat  aer  ? 
ut  ob  eam  ipsam  causam  quod  etiam  quibusdam 
regionibus  atque  urbibus  contingere  ^idemus  hebe- 
tiora  ut  sint  hominum  ingenia  propter  caeh  plenio- 
rem^  naturam,  hoc  idem  generi  humano  evenerit 
quod  in  terra  hoc  est  in  crassissima  regione  mundi 
18  conlocati  sint.  Et  tamen  ex  ipsa  hominum  sollertia 
esse  aliquam^  mentem  et  eam  quidem  acriorem 
et  divinam  existimare  debemus.  Unde  enim 
hanc  homo  *  arripuit '  (ut  ait  apud  Xenophontem 
Socrates)  ?  Quin  et  umorem  et  calorem  qui  est 
fusus  in  corpore  et  terrenam  ipsam  viscerum  soh- 
ditatem,  animum  denique  illum  spirabilem  si  quis 
quaerat  unde  habeamus,  apparet  quod^  aliud  a  terra 
sumpsimus  ahud  ab  umore  aliud  ab  igni  ahud  ab 
aere  eo  quem  spiritu*  ducimus.^  VII.  Ulud  autem 
quod  vincit  haec  omnia,  rationem  dico  et,  si  placet 
phiribus  verbis,  mentem  consilium  cogitationem  pru- 
dentiam,  ubi  invenimus,  unde  sustulimus  ?  An  cetera 
mundus  habebit  omnia,  hoc  unum  quod  plurimi  est 
non  habebit  ?  Atqui  certe  nihil  omnium  rerura 
mehus  est  mundo  nihil  praestabihus  nihil  pulcriiis, 

^  pleniorem  <umore>  Usener. 

■  aliam  quam  SchOmann  :  aliquam  <mundi>  Mayor. 

^  quod :  quorum  Plasherg. 

*•  spiritu  edd. :  spiritum  mss. 

'  diicinius  (htt. :  dicimus  A,  B. 

*•  avvafnrdaai.  Xen.  Mem.  i.  4.  8. 
140 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  vi.— vii. 

by  mice  and  weasels  ;   if  then  you  were  to  imagine 
that  this  elaborate  universe,  \vith  all  the  variety  and 
beauty  of  the  heavenly  bodies  and  the  vast  quantity 
and  extent  of  sea  and  land,  were  your  abode  and  not 
that  of  the  gods,  would  you  not  be  thought  absolutely 
insane  ?  Again,  do  we  not  also  understand  that  every- 
thing  in  a  higher  position  is  of  greater  value,  and 
that  the  earth  is  the  lowest  thing,  and  is  enveloped 
by  a  layer  of  the  densest  kind  of  air  ?    Hence  for  the 
same  reason  what  we  observe  to  be  the  case  with 
certain  districts  and  cities,  I  mean  that  their  inhabit- 
ants  are  duller-witted  than  the  average  owing  to  the 
more  compressed  quahty  of  the  atmosphere,  has  also 
befallen  the  human  race  as  a  whole  owing  to  its  being 
located  on  the  earth,  that  is,  in  the  densest  region  of 
18  the  world.    Yet  even  man's  intelligence  must  lead  us  (s)  Man'8 
to  infer  the  existence  of  a  mind  <in  the  universe>,  and  h^irotiier  ^ 
that  a  mind  of  surpassing  abiUty,  and  in  fact  divine.  eienients,  is 
Otherwise,  whence  did  man  '  pick  up  '  ^  (as  Socrates  from  the 
says  in  Xenophon)  the  intelligence  that  he  possesses  ?  ""i^'«"®- 
If  anyone  asks  the  question,  whence  do  we  get  the 
moisture  and  the  heat  diffused  throughout  the  body, 
and  the  actual  earthy  substance  of  the  flesh,  and 
lastly  the  breath  of  life  within  us,  it  is  manifest  that 
we  have  derived  the  one  from  earth,  the  other  from 
water,  and  the  other  from  the  air  which  we  inhale  in 
breathing.    VII.  But  Mhere  did  we  find,  whence  did  00  Reason 
we  abstract,  that  other  part  of  us  which  surpasses  all  toThe 
of  these,  I  mean  our  reason,  or,  if  you  Hke  to  employ  perfection 
several  terms  to  denote  it,  our  intelHgence,  delibera-  universa. 
tion,  thought,  wisdom  ?    Is  the  world  to  contain  each 
of  the  other  elements  but  not  this  one,  the  most 
precious  of  them  all  ?    Yet  beyond  question  nothing 
exists  among  all  things  that  is  superior  to  the  world, 

141 


CICERO 

nec  solum  nihil  est  sed  ne  cogitari  quidem  quicquam 
melius  potest.  Et  si  ratione  et  sapientia  nihil  est 
mehus,  necesse  est  haec  inesse  in  eo  quod  optimum 

19  esse  concedimus.  Quid  vero,  tanta  rerum  consentiens 
conspirans  continuata  cognatio  quem  non  coget  ea 
quae  dicuntur  a  me  conprobare  ?  Possetne  uno^ 
tempore  florere,  dein  vicissim  horrere  terra,  aut  tot 
rebus  ipsis  se  inmutantibus  sohs  accessus  discessusque 
solstitiis  brumisque  cognosci,  aut  aestus  maritimi 
fretorumque  angustiae  ortu  aut  obitu  lunae  com- 
moveri,  aut  una  totius  caeh  conversione  cursus 
astrorum  dispares  conservari  ?  Haec  ita  fieri  omni- 
bus  inter  se  concinentibus  mundi  partibus  profecto 
non  possent  nisi  ea  uno  divino  et  continuato  spiritu 
continerentur. 

20  **  Atque  haec  cum  uberius  disputantur  et  fusius, 
ut  mihi  est  in  animo  facere,  facihus  eifugiunt  Aca- 
demicorum  calumniam;  cum  autem,  ut  Zeno  solebat, 
brevius  angustiusque  concluduntur,  tum  apertiora 
sunt  ad  reprendendum.  Nam  ut  profluens  amnis  aut 
vix  aut  nuUo  modo,  conclusa  autem  aqua  facile 
conrumpitur,  sic  orationis  flumine  reprensoris  convicia 
diluuntur,  angustia  autem  conclusae  rationis  non 
facile  se  ipsa  tutatur.     Haec  enim  quae  dilatantur  a 

21  nobis  Zeno  sic  premebat ;  VHI.  *  Quod  ratione 
utitur  id  melius  est  quam  id  quod  ratione  non  utitur  ; 

*  uno  :   verno  Bouhier^  suo  Reizenstein, 
142 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  vii.— viii. 

nothing  that  is  more  excellent  or  more  beautiful  ;  and 
not  merely  does  nothing  superior  to  it  exist,  but 
nothing  superior  can  even  be  conceived.  And  if 
there  be  nothing  superior  to  reason  and  wisdom,  these 
faculties  must  necessarily  be  possessed  by  that  being 

19  which  we  admit  to  be  superior  to  all  others.    Again,  (lo)  The 
consider  the  sympathetic  agreement,  interconnexion  pervSn^ 
and  affinity  of  things  :    whom  ^^-ill  this  not  compel  the  parts  o! 
to  approve  the  trufh  of  what  I  say  ?     Would  it  be  proves  the 
possible  for  the  earth  at  one  definite  time  to  be  gay  operation 
with  flowers  and  then  in  turn  all  bare  and  stark,  or  spirit! 
for  the  spontaneous  transformation  of  so  many  things 

about  us  to  signal  the  approach  and  the  retirement  of 
the  sun  at  the  summer  and  the  winter  solstices,  or  for 
the  tides  to  flow  and  ebb  in  the  seas  and  straits  M-ith 
the  rising  and  setting  of  the  moon,  or  for  the  different 
courses  of  the  stars  to  be  maintained  by  the  one 
revolution  of  the  entire  sky  ?  These  processes  and 
this  musical  harmony  of  all  the  parts  of  the  world 
assuredly  could  not  go  on  were  they  not  maintained 
in  unison  by  a  single  divine  and  all-pervading  spirit. 

20  "  When  one  expounds  these  doctrines  in  a  fuller  (n)  zeno 
and  more  flowin^  style,  as  I  propose  to  do,  it  is  easier  P^o^'ed  the 
lor  them  to  evade  the  captious  objections  oi  the  rationaiity 
Academy  ;  but  when  they  are  reduced  to  brief  syllo-  fo?eits^^^' 
gistic  form,  as  was  the  practice  of  Zeno,  they  lie  more  divinity> 
open  to  criticism.     A  running  river  can  almost  or 

qiiite  entirely  escape  poUution,  whereas  an  enclosed 
pool  is  easily  sulhed  ;  similarly  a  flowing  stream  of 
eloquence  sweeps  aside  the  censures  of  the  critic, 
but  a  closely  reasoned  argument  defends  itself  with 
difficulty.     The  thoughts  that  we  expound  at  length 

21  Zeno  used  to  compress  into  this  form  :   \TII.  '  That 
which  has  the  faculty  of  reason  is  superior  to  that 

143 


CICERO 

nihil  autem  mundo  melius  ;  ratione  igitur  mundus 
utitur.'  Similiter  efRci  potest  sapientem  esse 
mundum,  similiter  beatum,  similiter  aeternum  ; 
omnia  enim  haec  meliora  sunt  quam  ea  quae  sunt 
his  carentia,  nec  mundo  quicquam  melius.  Ex  quo 
efficietur  esse  mundum  deum.     Idemque  hoc  modo  t 

22  *  Nullius  sensu  carentis  pars  aliqua  potest  esse 
sentiens  ;  mundi  autem  partes  sentientes  sunt ; 
non  igitur  caret  sensu  mundus.'  Pergit  idem  et 
urget  angustius  :  '  Nihil '  inquit  '  quod  animi  quod- 
que  rationis  est  expers,  id  generare  ex  se  potest 
animantem  conpotemque  rationis  ;  mundus  autem 
generat  animantis  compotesque  rationis  ;  animans 
est  igitur  mundus  composque  rationis.'  Idemque 
similitudine  ut  saepe  solet  rationem  conclusit^  hoc 
modo :  '  Si  ex  ohva  modulate  canentes  tibiae 
nascerentur,  num  dubitares  quin  inesset  in  oliva 
tibicinii  quaedam  scientia  ?  Quid  si  platani  fidi- 
culas  ferrent  numerose  sonantes  ?  idem  sciHcet 
censeres  in  platanis  inesse  musicam.  Cur  igitur 
mundus  non  animans  sapiensque  iudicetur,  cum  ex 
se  procreet  animantis  atque  sapientis  ?  ' 

23  IX.  "  Sed  quoniam  coepi  secus  agere  atque  initio 
dixeram  (negaram  enim  hanc  primam  partem  egere 
oratione,  quod  esset  omnibus  perspicuum  deos  esse), 
tamen  id  ipsum  rationibus  physicis  (id  est  naturah- 
bus^)  confirmare'  volo.  Sic  enim  res  se  habet  ut 
omnia  quae  alantur*  et  quae  crescant^  contineant  in 

*  concludit  dett.  *  id  .  .  .  naturalibus  om.  Ald, 

■  confirmare  dett.x  -ri  A,  B.  *  aluntur  dett. 

'  crescunt  dett. 
144 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  viii.— ix. 

which  has  not  the  faculty  of  reason  ;  but  nothing  is 
superior  to  the  world  ;  therefore  the  world  has  the 
faculty  of  reason.'  A  similar  argument  can  be  used 
to  prove  that  the  world  is  wise,  and  happy,  and 
eternal ;  for  things  possessed  of  each  of  these  attri- 
butes  are  superior  to  things  devoid  of  them,  and 
nothing  is  superior  to  the  world.  From  this  it  will 
follow  that  the  world  is  god.    Zeno  also  argued  thus  : 

2  *  Nothing  devoid  of  sensation  can  have  a  part  of  itself 
that  is  sentient  ;  but  the  world  has  parts  that  are 
sentient ;  therefore  the  world  is  not  devoid  of 
sensation.'  He  also  proceeds  to  press  the  argument 
more  closely  :  *  Nothing,'  he  says,  '  that  is  inanimate 
and  irrational  can  give  birth  to  an  animate  and 
rational  being  ;  but  the  world  gives  birth  to  animate 
and  rational  beings  ;  therefore  the  world  is  animate 
and  rational.'  Furthermore  he  proved  his  argument 
by  means  of  one  of  his  favourite  comparisons,  as 
foUows  :  '  If  flutes  playing  musical  tunes  grew  on  an 
ohve-tree,  surely  you  w^ould  not  question  that  the 
ohve-tree  possessed  some  knowledge  of  the  art  of 
flute-playing  ;  or  if  plane-trees  bore  well-tuned  lutes, 
doubtlcss  you  would  hkewise  infer  that  the  plane- 
trees  possessed  the  art  of  music  ;  why  then  should  we 
not  judge  the  world  to  be  animate  and  endowed  with 
wisdom,  when  it  produces  animate  and  wise  offspring?* 

3  IX.  "  However,  having  begun  to  treat  the  subject  (i2)  Argii- 
in  a  different  way  from  that  which  I  proposed  at  the  physfcsT™ 
beginning  (for  I  said  that  this  part  required  no  dis- 
cussion,  since  the  existence  of  god  was  manifest  to  heat  is  the 
everybody),  in  spite  of  this  I  should  Uke  to  prove  even  ^0^^!°°^^^^ 
this  point  by  means  of  arguments  drawn  from  Physics  iight 

or  Natural  Philosophy.    It  is  a  law  of  Nature  that  all  fhe  wodd ; 
things  capable  of  nurture  and  growth  contain  within 

145 


CICERO 

se  vim  caloris,  sine  qua  neque  ali  possent  nec  crescere; 
nam  omne  quod  est  calidum  et  igneum  cietur  et 
agitur  motu  suo  ;  quod  autem  alitur  et  crescit  motu 
quodam  utitur  certo  et  aequabili ;  qui  quam  diu 
remanet  in  nobis  tam  diu  sensus  et  vita  remanet, 
refrigerato  autem  et  extincto  calore  occidimus  ipsi 

24  et  extinguimur.  Quod  quidem  Cleanthes  his  etiam 
argumentis  docet,  quanta  vis  insit  caloris  in  omni 
corpore :  negat  enim  esse  ullum  cibum  tam  gravem 
quin  is  nocte  et  die  concoquatur  ;  cuius  etiam  in 
reliquiis  inest^  calor  iis  quas  natura  respuerit.  lam 
vero  venae  et  arteriae  micare  non  desinunt  quasi 
quodam  igneo  motu,  animadversumque  saepe  est 
cum  cor  animantis  alicuius  evolsum  ita  mobiliter  pal- 
pitaret  ut  imitaretur  igneam  celeritatem.  Omne 
igitur  quod  vivit,  sive  animal  sive  terra  editum,  id 
vivit  propter  inclusum  in  eo  calorem.  Ex  quo  intellegi 
debet  eam  caloris  naturam  vim  habere  in  se  vitalem 
per  omnem  mundum  pertinentem. 

25  "  Atque  id  facilius  cernemus  toto  genere  hoc 
igneo  quod  tranat  omnia  subtihus  exphcato.  Omnes 
igitur  partes  mundi  (tangam  autem  maximas)  calore 
fultae  sustinentur.  Quod  primum  in  terrena  natura 
perspici  potest.  Nam  et  lapidum  conflictu  atque 
tritu  ehci  ignem  videmus  et  recenti  fossione  *  terram 
fumare  calentem,'  atque  etiam  ex  puteis  iugibus 
aquam  cahdam  trahi,  et  id  maxime  fieri  temporibus 
hibernis,  quod  magna  vis  terrae  cavernis  contineatur^ 

^  insit  Heindorf.  *  continetur  dett. 

"  Mayor  detected  here  a  verse-quotation  from  an  unknown 
6ource. 
146 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  ix. 

them  a  supply  of  heat,  without  which  their  nurture 
and  growth  would  not  be  possible  ;  for  everything  of 
a  hot,  fiery  nature  suppHes  its  own  source  of  motion 
and  activity  ;  but  that  which  is  nourished  and  grows 
possesses  a  definite  and  uniform  motion  ;  and  as  long 
as  this  motion  remains  within  us,  so  long  sensation 
and  hfe  remain,  whereas  so  soon  as  our  heat  is  cooled 
and  quenched  we  ourselves  perish  and  are  extin- 

l  guished.  This  doctrine  Cleanthes  enforces  by  these 
further  arguments,  to  show  how  great  is  the  supply  of 
heat  in  every  hving  body  :  he  states  that  there  is  no 
food  so  heavy  that  it  is  not  digested  in  twenty-four 
hours  ;  and  even  the  residue  of  our  food  which  nature 
rejects  contains  heat.  Again,  the  veins  and  arteries 
never  cease  throbbing  ^^ith  a  flame-hke  pulse,  and 
frequent  cases  have  been  observed  when  the  heart  of 
an  animal  on  being  torn  out  of  its  body  has  continued 
to  beat  with  a  rapid  motion  resembhng  the  flickering 
of  fire.  Every  Hving  thing  therefore,  whether  animal 
or  vegetable,  owes  its  vitahty  to  the  heat  contained 
within  it.  From  this  it  must  be  inferred  that  this 
element  of  heat  possesses  in  itself  a  vital  force  that 
pervades  the  whole  world. 

)      "  We  shall  discern  the  truth  of  this  more  readily  matter 
from  a  more  detailed  account  of  this  all-permeating  of  heat^ll"' 
fiery  element  as  a  whole.    All  the  parts  of  the  world  itsruiin;,' 
(I  will  however  only  specify  the  most  important)  are  and  tilero- 
supported  and  sustained  by  heat.     This  can  be  per-  ^^^^-.^^^ 
ceived  first  of  all  in  the  element  of  earth.     We  see  possessea 
fire  produced  by  striking  or  rubbing  stones  together ;  ^^^^^^^ 
and  when  newly  dug,  '  the  earth  doth  steam  with 
warmth  '  <* ;     and  also  w^arm   water  is   drawn  from 
running  springs,  and  this  occurs  most  of  all  in  the 
winter-time,  because  a  great  store  of  heat  is  confined 

147 


CICERO 

caloris  eaque  hieme  sit^  densior  ob  eamque  causam 
calorem    insitum    in    terris    contineat^    artius.      X. 

26  Longa  est  oratio  multaeque  rationes  quibus  doceri 
possit  omnia  quae  terra  concipiat  semina  quaeque 
ipsa  ex  se  generata  stirpibus  infixa  contineat  ea 
temperatione  caloris  et  oriri  et  augescere.  Atque 
aquae  etiam  admixtum  esse  calorem  primum  ipse 
liquor  aquae  declarat  [effusio],^  quae  neque  con- 
glaciaret  frigoribus  neque  nive  pruinaque  concresceret 
nisi  eadem  se  admixto  calore  liquefacta  et  dilapsa 
diffunderet  ;  itaque  et  aquilonibus*  reliquisque  fri- 
goribus  adiectis^  durescit  umor  et  idem  vicissim  molli- 
tur  tepefactus  et  tabescit  calore.  Atque  etiam  maria 
agitata  ventis  ita  tepescunt  ut  intellegi  facile  possit 
in  tantis  illis  umoribus  esse  inclusum  calorem ;  nec 
enim  ille  extemus  et  adventicius  habendus  est  tepor 
sed  ex  intimis  maris  partibus  agitatione  excitatus, 
quod  nostris  quoque  corporibus  contingit  cum  motu 
atque  exercitatione  recalescunt.  Ipse  vero  aer,  qui 
natura  est  maxime  frigidus,  minime  est  expers  calo- 

27  ris  ;  ille  vero  et  multo  quidem  calore  admixtus  est, 
ipse  enim  oritur  ex  respiratione  aquarum,  earura 
enim  quasi  vapor  quidam  aer  habendus  est,  is  autem 
existit  motu  eius  caloris  qui  aquis  continetur,  quam 
similitudinem  cernere  possumus  in  iis  aquis*  quae 
effervescunt  subditis  ignibus.  lam  vero  rehqua  quarta 
pars  mundi :   ea  et  ipsa  tota  natura  fervida  est  et 

^  fil:  dett.  ^  continet  Ileindorf. 

'  eifusio  om.  det.  :  effusae  B^  et  fusio  Gruter. 
*  aquiloniis  ?  ed.  ^  adstrictus  Ileindorf. 

^  iis  aqnis  ed.  Rom.  :  his  aquis  Mss.^  aeneis  Allen  (aeneis, 
aenis  post  quae  addunt  dett.). 

148 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  ix.— x. 

in  the  caverns  of  the  earth,  which  in  winter  is  denscr 
and  therefore  confines  more  closely  the  heat  stored 

16  in  the  soil.  X.  It  would  require  a  long  discourse  and 
a  great  many  arguments  to  enable  me  to  show  that 
all  the  seeds  that  earth  receives  in  her  womb,  and  all 
the  plants  which  she  spontaneously  generates  and 
holds  fixed  by  their  roots  in  the  ground,  owe  both 
their  origin  and  growth  to  this  warm  temperature  of 
the  soil.  That  water  also  contains  an  admixture  of 
heat  is  shown  first  of  all  by  its  liquid  nature  ;  water 
would  neither  be  frozen  into  ice  by  cold  nor  congealed 
into  snow  and  hoar-frost  unless  it  could  also  becorae 
fluid  when  Hquefied  and  thawed  by  the  admixture 
of  heat ;  this  is  why  moisture  both  hardens  when 
exposed  to  a  north  wind  or  a  frost  from  some  other 
quarter,  and  also  in  turn  softens  when  warmed,  and 
evaporates  with  heat.  Also  the  sea  when  violently 
stirred  by  the  wind  becomes  warm,  so  that  it  can 
readily  be  reaUzed  that  this  great  body  of  fluid  con- 
tains  heat ;  for  we  must  not  suppose  the  warmth  in 
question  to  be  derived  from  some  external  source,  but 
stirred  up  from  the  lowest  depths  of  the  sea  by  violent 
motion,  just  as  happens  to  our  bodies  when  they  are 
restored  to  warmth  by  movement  and  exercise.  In- 
deed  the  air  itself,  though  by  nature  the  coldest  of 
the  elements,  is  by  no  means  entirely  devoid  of  heat ; 

27  indeed  it  contains  even  a  considerable  admixture  of 
heat,  for  it  is  itself  generated  by  exhalation  from 
water,  since  air  must  be  deemed  to  be  a  sort  of 
vaporized  water,  and  this  vaporization  is  caused  by 
the  motion  of  the  heat  contained  in  the  water.  We 
may  see  an  example  of  the  same  process  when  water 
is  made  to  boil  by  placing  fire  beneath  it. — There 
remains  the  fourth  element :   this  is  itself  by  nature 

14Q 


CICERO 

ceteris  naturis  omnibus  salutarem  inpertit  et  vitalem 

28  calorem.  Ex  quo  concluditur,  cum  omnes  mundi  par- 
tes  sustineantur  calore,  mundum  etiam  ipsum  simili 
parique  natura  in  tanta  diuturnitate  servari,  eoque 
magis  quod  intellegi  debet  calidum  illud  atque 
igneum  ita  in  omni  fusum  esse  natura  ut  in  eo  insit 
procreandi  vis  et  causa  gignendi,  a  quo  et  animantia 
omnia  et  ea  quorum  stirpes  terra  continentur  et 
nasci  sit  necesse  et  augescere. 

29  XI.  "  Natura  est  igitur^  quae  contineat  mundum 
omnem  eumque  tueatur,  et  ea  quidera  non  sine  sensu 
atque  ratione  ;  omnem  enim  naturam  necesse  est 
quae  non  solitaria  sit  neque  simplex  sed  cum  alio 
iuncta  atque  conexa  habere  aliquem  in  se  principa- 
tum,  ut  in  homine  mentem,  in  behia  quiddam  simile 
mentis  unde  oriantur  rerum  adpetitus  ;  in  arborum 
autem  et  earum  rerum  quae  gignuntur  e  terra  radi- 
cibus  inesse  principatus  putatur.  Principatum  autem 
id  dico  quod  Graeci  qyeixoviKov  vocant,  quo  nihil  in 
quoque  genere  nec  potest  nec  debet  esse  praestan- 
tius ;  ita  necesse  est  illud  etiam  in  quo  sit  totius 
naturae  principatus  esse  omnium  optimum  omnium- 
que    rerum    potestate    dominatuque    dignissimum. 

30  Videmus  autem  in  partibus  mundi  (nihil  est  enim  in 
omni  mundo  quod  non  pars  universi  sit)  inesse 
sensum  atque  rationem.     In  ea  parte  igitur  in  qua 

1  <ignea>  igitur  ?  Mayor. 

"  iSIayor  would  alter  the  Latin  to  give  '  It  Ls  therefore  the 
element  of  fire  that  .  .  .' 
150 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  x.—xi. 

glo^ving  hot  throughout  and  also  imparts  the  warmth 
3  of  health  and  Ufe  to  all  other  substances.  Hence 
from  the  fact  that  all  the  parts  of  the  world  are  sus- 
tained  by  heat  the  inference  follows  that  the  world 
itself  also  owes  its  continued  preservation  for  so  long 
a  time  to  the  same  or  a  similar  substance,  and  all  the 
more  so  because  it  must  be  understood  that  this  hot 
and  fiery  principle  is  interfused  \\ith  the  whole  of 
nature  in  such  a  way  as  to  constitute  the  male 
and  female  generative  principles,  and  so  to  be  the 
necessary  cause  of  both  the  birth  and  the  gro^vth  of  all 
Hving  creatures,  whether  animals  or  those  whose  roots 
are  planted  in  the  earth. 
9  XI.  "  There  is  therefore  an  element  that  holds  °  the 
whole  world  together  and  preserves  it,  and  this  an 
element  possessed  of  sensation  and  reason  ;  since 
every  natural  object  that  is  not  a  homogeneous  and 
simple  substance  but  a  complex  and  composite  one 
must  contain  within  it  some  ruUng  principle,  for 
example  in  man  the  intelligence,  in  the  lower 
animals  something  resembhng  intelligence  that  is  the 
source  of  appetition.  With  trees  and  plants  the 
ruhng  principle  is  believed  to  be  located  in  the  roots. 
I  use  the  term  *  ruUng  principle  '  as  the  equivalent 
of  the  Greek  hegemo?iikon,  meaning  that  part  of  any- 
thing  which  must  and  ought  to  have  supremacy  in 
a  thing  of  that  sort.  Thus  it  follows  that  the  element 
which  contains  the  ruUng  principle  of  the  whole  of 
nature  must  also  be  the  most  exceUent  of  aU  things 
and  the  most  deser\dng  of  authority  and  sovereignty 
3  over  aU  things.  Now  we  observe  that  the  parts  of  the 
world  (and  nothing  exists  in  aU  the  world  which  is  not 
apartofthe  whole  world)  possess  sensation  and  reason. 
Tiiercfore  it  foUows  tliat  that  part  which  contains  the 

151 


CICERO 

mundi  inest  principatus  haec  inesse  necesse  est,  et 
acriora  quidem  atque  maiora.  Quocirca  sapientem 
esse  mundum  necesse  est,  naturamque  eam  quae 
res  omnes  conplexa  teneat  perfectione  rationis 
excellere,  eoque  deum  esse  mundum  omnemque 
vim  mundi  natura  divina  contineri. 

"  Atque  etiam  mundi  ille  fervor  purior  perlucidior 
mobiliorque  multo  ob  easque  causas  aptior  ad  sensus 
commovendos  quam  hic  noster  calor  quo  haec  quae 

31  nota  nobis  sunt  retinentur  et  vigent.  Absurdum 
igitur  est  dicere,  cum  homines  bestiaeque  hoc  calore 
teneantur  et  propterea  moveantur  ac  sentiant, 
mundum  esse  sine  sensu  qui  integro  et  hbero  et 
puro  eodemque  acerrimo  et  mobilissimo  ardore 
teneatur,  praesertim  cum  is  ardor  qui  est  mundi  non 
agitatus  ab  alio  neque  externo  pulsu  sed  per  se  ipse 
ac  sua  sponte  moveatur ;  nam  quid  potest  esse 
mundo^  valentius,  quod  pellat  atque  moveat  calorem 

32  eum  quo  ille  teneatur  ?  XII.  Audiamus  enim 
Platonem  quasi  quendam  deum  philosophorum  ;  cui 
duo  placet  esse^  motus,  unum  suum  alterum  exter- 
num,  esse  autem  divinius  quod  ipsum  ex  se  sua  sponte 
moveatur  quam  quod  pulsu  agitetur  aheno.  Hunc 
autem  motum  in  sohs  animis  esse  ponit,  ab  hisque 
principium  motus  esse  ductum  putat.  Quapropter 
quoniam  ex  mundi  ardore  motus  omnis  oritur, 
is  autem  ardor  non  aheno  inpulsu  sed  sua  sponte 

*  <in>  mundo  Uoethe.  ^  esse  <genera>  Ploiiherg. 

•  Tiinaeus  b"J. 
152 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xi.— xii. 

ruling  priiiciple  of  the  world  must  necessarily  possess 
sensation  and  reason,  and  these  in  a  more  intense  and 
higher  form.  Hence  it  follows  that  the  world  pos- 
sesses  A^isdom,  and  that  the  element  which  holds  all 
things  in  its  embrace  is  pre-eminently  and  perfectly 
rational,  and  therefore  that  the  world  is  god,  and  all 
the  forces  of  the  world  are  held  together  by  the 
divine  nature. 

"  Moreover  that  glowing  heat  of  the  world  is  far 
purer  and  more  briUiant  and  far  more  mobile,  and 
therefore  more  stimulating  to  the  senses,  than  this 
warmth  of  ours  by  which  the  things  that  we  know  are 

1  preserved  and  vitahzed.     As  therefore  man  and  the  since  the 
animals  are  possessed  by  this  warmth  and  owe  to  y^orid-iieat 
this  their  motion  and  sensation,  it  is  absurd  to  say  than  oura, 
that  the  world  is  devoid  of  sensation,  considering  that  nl!^ved^and 
it  is  possessed  by  an  intense  heat  that  is  stainless,  therefore 
free  and  pure,  and  also  penetrating  and  mobile  in  the  soan^'"^ 
extreme  ;   especially  as  this  intense  world-heat  does 

not  derive  its  motion  from  the  operation  of  some 
other  force  from  outside,  but  is  self-moved  and  spon- 
taneous  in  its  acti\dty  :  for  how  can  there  be  any- 
thing  more  powerful  than  the  world,  to  impart  motion 
and  activity  to  the  warmth  by  which  the  world  is  held 

2  together .''  XII.  Forletus  hear  Plato,^that  divine  philo' 
sopher,  for  so  almost  he  is  to  be  deemed.  He  holds 
that  motion  is  of  two  sorts,  one  spontaneous,  the  other 
derived  from  without  ;  and  that  that  which  moves 
of  itself  spontaneously  is  more  divine  than  that  which 
has  motion  imparted  to  it  by  some  force  not  its  own. 
The  former  kind  of  motion  he  deems  to  rcside  only  in 
the  soul,  which  he  considers  to  be  the  only  source  and 
origin  of  motion.  Hence,  since  all  motion  springs 
from  the  world-heat,  and  since  that  heat  moves  spon- 

153 


CICERO 

movetur,  animus  sit  necesse  est ;    ex  quo  efficitur 
animantem  esse  mundum. 

"  Atque  ex  hoc  quoque  intellegi  poterit  in  eo  inesse 
intellegentiam,  quod  certe  est  mundus  melior  quam 
uUa  natura  ;  ut  enim  nuUa  pars  est  corporis  nostri 
quae  non  minoris  sit  quam  nosmet  ipsi  sumus,  sic 
mundum  universum  pluris  esse  necesse  est  quam 
partem  aliquam  universi ;  quod  si  ita  est,  sapiens 
sit  mundus  necesse  est,  nam  ni  ita  esset,  hominem 
qui  esset^  mundi  pars,  quoniam  rationis  esset^  parti- 
ceps,  pluris  esse  quam  mundum  omnem  oporteret. 

33  "  Atque  etiam  si  a  primis  inchoatisque  naturis  ad 
ultimas  perfectasque  volumus  procedere,  ad  deorum 
naturam  perveniamus  necesse  est.  Prima^  enira 
animadvertimus  a  natura  sustineri  ea  quae  gignantur 
e  terra,  quibus  natura  nihil  tribuit  amphus  quam  ut 

34  ea  alendo  atque  augendo  tueretur.  Bestiis  autem 
sensum  et  motum  dedit  et  cum  quodam  adpetitu 
accessum  ad  res  salutares  a  pestiferis  recessum ; 
hoc  homini  ampUus  quod  addidit  rationem,  qua 
regerentur  animi  adpetitus,  qui  tum  remitterentur 
tum  continerentur.  XIII.  Quartus  autem  gradus 
est  et  altissimus  eorum  qui  natura  boni  sapientesque 
gignuntur,  quibus  a  principio  innascitur  ratio  recta 
constansque,  quae  supra  hominem  putanda  est 
deoque  tribuenda,  id  est  mundo,  in  quo  necesse  est 
perfectam  illam   atque   absolutam  inesse  rationem. 

*  est  dett.  >  primo,  primura  dett. 

154 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xii.— xiii. 

taneously  and  not  by  any  impulse  from  something 
else,  it  follows  that  that  heat  is  soul  ;  which  proves 
that  the  world  is  an  animate  being. 

"  Another  proof  that  the  world  possesses  intelH-  for  the 
gence  is  supphed  by  the  fact  that  the  world  is  un-  must^r'^^'^ 
questionably  better  than  any  of  its  elements  ;    for  superior  to 
even  as  there  Is  no  part  of  our  body  that  is  not  of  less  ^'^  ^"  ^' 
value  than  we  are  ourselves,  so  the  whole  universe 
must  needs  be  of  higher  worth  tlian  any  portion  of  the 
universe  ;   and  if  this  be  so,  it  follow^s  that  the  world 
must  be  endowed  with  wisdom,  for,  if  it  were  not, 
man,  although  a  part  of  the  world,  being  possessed 
of  reason  would  necessarily  be  of  higher  worth  than 
the  world  as  a  whole. 

3  "  x\gain,  if  we  wish  to  proceed  from  the  first  rudi-  (i3)  Argu- 
mentary  orders  of  being  to  the  last  and  most  perfect,  Jhe"s^^iQ°S 
we  shall  necessarily  arrive  in  the  end  at  deity.     We  existence. 
notice  the  sustaining  power  of  nature  first  in  the  anmuis^^^' 
members  of  the  vegetable  kingdom,  towards  which  ^^-^^Ji^*" 
her  bounty  was  Umited  to  providing  for  their  preser-  defty  above 
vation   by   means   of  the   faculties   of  nurture   and  ^'^^™- 

4  growth.  Upon  the  animals  she  bestowed  sensation 
and  motion,  and  an  appetite  or  impulse  to  approach 
things  wholesome  and  retire  from  things  harmful. 
For  man  she  amphfied  her  gift  by  the  addition  of 
reason,  whereby  the  appetites  might  be  controlled, 
and  alternately  indulged  and  held  in  check.  XIII. 
But  the  fourth  and  highest  grade  is  that  of  beings 
born  by  nature  good  and  wise,  and  endowed  from  the 
outset  with  the  innate  attributes  of  right  reason  and 
consistency  ;  this  must  be  held  to  be  above  the  level 
of  man  :  it  is  the  attribute  of  god,  that  is,  of  the 
world,  which  must  needs   possess  that  perfect  and 

5  absolute  reason  of  which  I  spoke.     Again,  it  is  un- 

155 


CICERO 

35  Neque  enim  dici  potest  in  ulla  rerum  institutione  non 
esse  aliquid  extremum  atque  perfectum.  Ut  enim 
in  vite  ut  in  pecude  nisi  quae  vis  obstitit  videmus 
naturam  suo  quodam  itinere  ad  ultimum  pervenire, 
atque  ut  pictura  et  fabrica  ceteraeque  artes  habent 
quendam  absoluti  operis  efFectum,  sic  in  omni  natura 
ac  multo  etiam  magis  necesse  est  absolvi  aliquid 
ac  perfici.  Etenim  ceteris  naturis  multa  externa 
quo  minus  perficiantur  possunt  obsistere,  universam 
autem  naturam  nuUa  res  potest  impedire,  propterea 
quod  omnis  naturas  ipsa  cohibet  et  continet.  Quo- 
circa  necesse  est  esse  quartum  illum  et  altissimum 

36  gradum  quo  nulla  vis  possit  accedere.  Is  autem 
est  gradus  in  quo  rerum  omnium  natura  ponitur  ; 
quae  quoniam  tahs  est  ut  et  praesit  omnibus  et  eam 
nulla  res  possit  inpedire,  necesse  est  intellegentem 
esse  mundum  et  quidem  etiam  sapientem. 

"  Quid  autem  est  inscitius  quam^  eam  naturam 
quae  omnis  res  sit  conplexa  non  optumam  dici, 
aut  cum  sit  optuma  non  primum  animantem  esse, 
deinde  rationis  et  consiUi  compotem,  postremo 
sapientem  ?  Qui  enim  potest  aHter  esse  optuma  ? 
Neque  enim  si  stirpium  simihs  sit  aut  etiam  bestia- 
rum,  optuma  putanda  sit  potius  quam  deterruma  ; 
nec  vero  si  rationis  particeps  sit  nec  sit  tamen  a 
principio  sapiens,  non  sit  deterior  mundi  potius  quam 
humana  condicio  ;  homo  enim  sapiens  fieri  potest, 
mundus  autem  si  in  aeterno  praeteriti  temporis  spatio 
fuit  insipiens,  numquam  profecto    sapientiam    con- 

*  quam  <aut>  MamUins. 
156 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xiii. 

deniable  that  every  organic  whole  must  have  an  ulti-  A-1  things 
mate  ideal  of  perfection.    As  in  vines  or  in  cattle  \ve  perfection, 
see  that,  unless  obstructed  by  some  force,  nature  pro-  ]^^^ 
gresses  on  a  certain  path  of  her  ovvn  to  her  goal  of  full  inture  aione 
development,  and  as  in  painting,  architecture  and  the  canattainit. 
other  arts  and  crafts  there  is  an  ideal  of  perfect  work- 
manship,  even  so  and  far  more  in  the  world  of  nature 
as  a  whole  there  must  be  a  process  towards  complete- 
ness  and  perfection.     The  various  hmited  modes  of 
being  may   encounter  many   external   obstacles   to 
hinder  their  perfect  reahzation,  but  there  can  be 
nothing  that  can  frustrate  nature  as  a  whole,  since 
she  embraces  and  contains  within  herself  all  modes 
of  being.     Hence  it  follows  that  there  must  exist 
this  fourth  and  highest  grade,  unassailable  by  any 
36  external  force.      Now  this   is   the  grade    on  which  The  worid, 
universal  nature  stands  ;   and  since  she  is  of  such  a  i^^^  contain- 
character  as  to  be  superior  to  all  things  and  incapable  th"n-s  and 
of  frustration  by  any,  it  follows  of  necessity  that  the  5!//,"!^^"''® 
world  is  an  inteUigent  being,  and  indeed  also  a  wise  s  iprenaeiy 
being.  5°S;--' 

"  Again,  what  can  be  more  illogical  than  to  deny  wisdomand 
that  tlie  being  which  embraces  all  things  must  be  the  "^^  ^* 
best  of  all  things,  or,  admitting  this,  to  deny  that  it 
must  be,  first,  possessed  of  Hfe,  secondly,  rational  and 
intelHgent,  and  lastly,  endowed  with  wisdom  ?  How 
else  can  it  be  the  best  of  all  things  ?  If  it  resembles 
plants  or  even  animals,  so  far  from  being  highest,  it 
must  be  reckoned  lowest  in  the  scale  of  being.  If 
again  it  be  capable  of  reason  yet  has  not  been  wise 
from  the  beginning,  the  world  must  be  in  a  worse 
condition  than  mankind  ;  for  a  man  can  become  wise, 
but  if  in  all  the  eternity  of  past  time  the  world  has 
been  foolish,  obviously  it  will  never  attain  wisdom  ; 
ti  157 


CICERO 

sequetur  ;  ita  erit  homine  deterior.  Quod  quoniam 
absurdum  est,  et  sapiens  a  principio  mundus  et  deus 
habendus  est. 

37  "  Neque  enim  est  quicquam  aliud  praeter  mun- 
dum  cui  nihil  absit  quodque  undique  aptum  atque 
perfectum  expletumque  sit  omnibus  suis  numeris 
et  partibus.  XIV.  Scite  enim  Chrysippus,  ut  clipei 
causa  involucrum  vaginam  autem  gladii,  sic  praeter 
mundum  cetera  omnia  ahorum  causa  esse  generata, 
ut  eas  fruges  atque  fructus  quos  terra  gignit  ani- 
mantium  causa,  animantes  autem  hominum,  ut 
equum  vehendi  causa  arandi  bovem  venandi  et 
custodiendi  canem  ;  ipse  autem  homo  ortus  est  ad 
mundum  contemplandum  et  imitandum,  nullo  modo 

38  perfectus,  sed  est  quaedam  particula  perfecti.  Sed 
mundus  quoniam  omnia  conplexus  est  neque  est 
quicquam  quod  non  insit  in  eo,  perfectus  undique 
est ;  qui  igitur  potest  ei  deesse  id  quod  est  optimum  ? 
nihil  autem  est  mente  et  ratione  mehus  ;  ergo  haec 
mundo  deesse  non  possunt.  Bene  igitur  idem  Chrys- 
ippus,  qui  simihtudines  adiungens  omnia  in  perfectis 
et  maturis  docet  esse  mehora,  ut  in  equo  quam  in 
eculeojin  cane  quam  in  catulo,  in  viro  quaminpuero; 
item  quod  in  omni  mundo  optimum  sit  id  in  perfecto 

39  ahquo  atque  absoluto  esse  debere  ;  est  autem  nihil 
mundo  perfectius,  nihil  virtute  mehus  ;  igitur  mundi 
est  propria  virtus.  Nec  vero  hominis  natura  perfecta 
est,  et  efhcitur  tamen  in  homine  virtus  ;  quanto  igitur 


<•  Mayor  would  transfer  this  sentence  to  the  end  of  §  37. 

*  This  probably  comes  from  Aristotle's  lost  dialogue  D« 
Philosophiat  see  i.  33  n. 
158 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xiii.— xiv. 

and  so  it  will  be  inferior  to  man.     Which  is  absurd. 
Therefore  the  world  must  be  deemed  to  have  been 
wise  from  the  beginning,  and  divine. 
n      "  In  fact  ^  there  is  nothing  else  beside  the  world  that  The  worid 
has  nothing  wanting,  but  is  fully  equipped  and  com-  ,,erfect,  and 
plete  and  perfect  in  all  its  details  and  parts.    XIV.  therefore 

i,  A-.1  1  ■),•  1-11  virtuous, 

ror  as  Cluysippus  cleverly  put  it,°  just  as  a  snield-case  rationai  and 
is  made  for  the  sake  of  a  shield  and  a  sheath  for  the  divine. 
sake  of  a  sword,  so  everything  else  except  the  world 
was  created  for  the  sake  of  some  other  thing  ;  thus 
the  corn  and  fruits  produced  by  the  earth  were 
created  for  the  sake  of  animals,  and  animals  for  the 
sake  of  man  :  for  example  the  horse  for  riding,  the 
ox  for  ploughing,  the  dog  for  hunting  and  keeping 
guard;  man  himself  however  came  into  existence 
for  the  purpose  of  contemplating  and  imitating  the 
world ;  he  is  by  no  means  perfect,  but  he  is  '  a  small 

J8  fragment  of  that  which  is  perfect.'  The  world  on  the 
contrary,  since  it  embraces  all  things  and  since  no- 
thing  exists  which  is  not  within  it,  is  entirely  perfect ; 
how  then  can  it  fail  to  possess  that  which  is  the  best  ? 
but  there  is  nothing  better  than  intelligence  and 
reason  ;  the  world  therefore  cannot  fail  to  possess 
them.  Chrysippus  therefore  also  well  shows  by  the 
aid  of  illustrations  that  in  the  perfect  and  mature 
specimen  of  its  kind  everything  is  better  than  in  the 
imperfect,  for  instance  in  a  horse  than  in  a  foal,  in  a 
dog  than  in  a  puppy,  in  a  man  than  in  a  boy  ;  and 
that  similarly  a  perfect  and  complete  being  is  bound 
to  possess  that  which  is  the  best  thing  in  all  the  world  ; 

39  but  no  being  is  more  perfect  than  the  world,  and 
nothing  is  better  than  virtue  ;  therefore  virtue  is  an 
essential  attribute  of  the  world.  Again,  man's  nature 
is  not  perfect,  yet  virtue  may  be  reahzed  in  man  ; 

159 


CICERO 

in  mundo  facilius ;  est  ergo  in  eo  virtus.    Sapiens  est 
igitur,  et  propterea  deus. 

XV.  "  Atque  hac  mundi  divinitate  perspecta  tri- 
buenda  est  sideribus  eadem  divinitas,  quae  ex  mobi- 
lissima  purissimaque  aetheris  parte  gignuntur  neque 
ulla  praeterea  sunt  admixta  natura  totaque  sunt 
caUda  atque  perlucida,  ut  ea  quoque  rectissime  et 
animantia  esse  et  sentire  atque  intellegere  dicantur. 

40  Atque  ea  quidem  tota  esse  ignea  duorum  sensuum 
testimonio  confirmari  Cleanthes  putat,  tactus  et 
oculorum.  Nam  solis  et  candor^  inlustrior  est  quam 
ullius  ignis,  quippe  qui  inmenso  mundo  tam  longe 
lateque  conluceat,  et  is  eius  tactus  est  non  ut  tepe- 
faciat  solum  sed  etiam  saepe  comburat,  quorum 
neutrum  faceret  nisi  esset  igneus.  '  Ergo  '  inquit 
*  cum  sol  igneus  sit,  Oceanique  alatur  umoribus  quia 
nullus  ignis  sine  pastu  ahquo  posset  permanere, 
necesse  est  aut  ei  simiHs  sit  igni  quem  adhibemus  ad 
usum  atque  victum  aut  et  qui  corporibus  animantium 

41  continetur.  Atqui  hic  noster  ignis  quem  usus  vitae 
requirit  confector  est  et  consumptor  omnium, 
idemque  quocumque  invasit  cuncta  disturbat  ac 
dissipat ;  contra  ille  corporeus  vitaUs  et  salutaris 
omnia  conservat  aht  auget  sustinet  sensuque  adficit.' 
Negat  ergo  esse  dubium  horum  ignium  sol  utri 
simihs  sit,  cum  is  quoque  efficiat  ut  omnia  floreant 

*  et  candor  Klotz  :  calor  et  candor  A,  B,  candor  dett, 

160 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xiv.— xv. 

how  much  more  readily  then  in  the  world  !  therefore 
the  world  possesses  virtue.  Therefore  it  is  wise,  and 
consequently  divine. 

XV.  "  Havinff  thus  perceived  the  divinity  of  the  (i4)Divinity 

ij  j.      1  •         j-i  T    •    •/    i      J.1,      ofthestars: 

world,  we  must  also  assign  the  same  divmity  to  the  (a)  because 
stars,  wliich  are  formed  from  the  most  mobile  and  the  l;'"'^  ^'■® 
purest  part  of  the  aether,  and  are  not  compounded  of  ae-  her.tha 
any  other  clement  besides  ;   they  are  of  a  fiery  heat  i','}^^.'^®  °' 
and  translucent  throughout.     Hence  they  too  have 
the  fuUest  right  to  be  pronounced  to  be  Uving  beings 

tO  endowed  with  sensation  and  intelhgence.  That  the 
stars  consist  entirely  of  fire  Cleanthes  holds  to  be 
estabhshed  by  the  evidence  of  two  of  the  senses, 
those  of  touch  and  sight.  For  the  radiance  of  the  sun 
is  more  briUiant  than  that  of  any  fire,  inasmuch  as  it 
casts  its  Hght  so  far  and  wide  over  the  boundless  uni- 
verse  ;  and  the  contact  of  its  rays  is  so  powerful  that 
it  not  merely  warms  but  often  actually  burns,  neither 
of  which  things  could  it  do  if  it  were  not  made  of  fire. 
'  Therefore,'  Cleanthes  proceeds,  '  since  the  sun  is 
made  of  fire,  and  is  nourished  by  the  vapours  exhaled 
from  the  ocean  because  no  fire  could  continue  to 
exist  without  sustenance  of  some  sort,  it  follows  that 
it  resembles  either  that  fire  which  we  employ  in 
ordinary  life  or  that  which  is  contained  in  the  bodies 

H  of  Hving  creatures.  Now  our  ordinary  fire  that  servcs 
the  needs  of  daily  hle  is  a  destructive  agency,  con- 
suming  everything,  and  also  wherever  it  spreads  it 
routs  and  scatters  everything.  On  the  other  hand  the 
fire  of  the  body  is  the  glow  of  hfe  and  health  ;  it  is  the 
universal  preservative,  giving  nourishment,  fostering 
growth,  sustaining,  bestowing  sensation.*  He  there- 
fore  maintains  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  which  of 
the  two  kinds  of  fire  the  sun  resembles,  for  the  sun 

161 


CICERO 

et  in  suo  quaeque  genere  pubescant.  Quare  cum 
solis  ignis  similis  eorum  ignium  sit  qui  sunt  in 
corporibus  animantium,  solem  quoque  animantem 
esse  oportet,  et  quidem  reliqua  astra  quae  orian- 
tur  in  ardore  caelesti  qui  aether  vel  caelum  nomi- 

42  natur.  Cum  igitur  aliorum  animantium  ortus  in 
terra  sit,  aliorum  in  aqua,  in  aere  aliorum,  absurdum 
esse  Aristoteli  videtur  in  ea  parte  quae  sit  ad  gi- 
gnenda  animantia  aptissima  animal  gigni  nullum  pu- 
tare.  Sidera  autem  aetherium  locum  obtinent,  qui 
quoniam  tenuissimus  est  et  semper  agitatur  et  viget, 
necesse  est  quod  animal  in  eo  gignatur  id  et  sensu 
acerrimo  et  mobiUtate  celerrima  esse  ;  quare  cum  in 
aethere  astra  gignantur,  consentaneum  est  in  iis 
sensum  inesse  et  intellegentiam.  Ex  quo  efhcitur  in 
deorum  numero  astra  esse  ducenda.  XVI.  Etenim 
licet  videre  acutiora  ingenia  et  ad  intellegendum 
aptiora  eorum  qui  terras  incolant  eas  in  quibus  aer  sit 
purus  ac  tenuis,  quam  illorum  qui  utantur  crasso  caelo 

43  atque  concreto  ;  quin  etiam  cibo  quo  utare  interesse 
ahquid  ad  mentis  aciem  putant ;  probabile  est  igitur 
praestantem  intellegentiam  in  sideribus  esse,  quae  et 
aetheriam  partera  mundi  incolant  et  marinis  terrenis- 
que  umoribus  longo  intervallo  extenuatis  alantur. 
Sensum  autem  astrorum  atque  intellegentiam  maxu- 
me  declarat  ordo  eorum  atque  constantia ;  nihil  est 
enim  quod  ratione  et  numero  moveri  possit  sine  con- 
silio,  in  quo  nihil  est  temerarium  nihil  varium  nihil 

"  Doubtless  in  the  lost  Be  Philosophiat  see  i.  32  n, 
162 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xv.— xvi. 

also  causes  all  things  to  floiirish  and  to  bring  forth 
increase  each  after  its  kind.  Hence  since  the  sun 
resembles  those  fires  which  are  contained  in  the  bodies 
of  li^ing  creatures,  the  sun  also  must  be  aUve  ;  and 
so  too  the  other  heavenly  bodies,  since  they  have 
their  origin  in  the  fiery  heat  of  heaven  that  is  entitled 

2  the    aether   or   sky.      Since    therefore    some   Uving  ^f^^  becanse 
creatures  are  born  on  the  earth,  others  in  the  water  the  inhabit- 
and  others  in  the  air,  it  is  absurd,  so  Aristotle  °  holds,  aether 
to   suppose   that  no  Uving  animal  is  born  in  that  probabiy 
element  which  is  most  adapted  for  the  generation  Lenest 
of  Uving  tliings.     But  the  stars  occupy  the  region  of  ^"'^®^®''*^» 
aether,  and  as  this  has  a  very  rarefied  substance  and 
is  always  in  Uvely  motion,  it  foUows  that  the  animal 
born  in  this  region  has  the  keenest  senses  and  the 
swiftest  power  of  movement ;   hence  since  the  stars 
come  into  existence  in  the  aether,  it  is  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  they  possess  sensation  and  inteUigence. 
And  from  this  it  foUows  that  the  stars  are  to  be 
reckoned  as  gods.    XVI.  For  it  may  be  observed  that 
the  inhabitants  of  those  countries  in  which  the  air  is 
pure  and  rarefied  have  keener  wits  and  greater  powers 
of  understanding  than  persons  who  Uve  in  a  dense  and 

t3  heavy  cUmate  ;  moreover  the  substance  employed  as 
food  is  also  beUeved  to  have  some  influence  on  raental 
acuteness  ;  it  is  therefore  Ukely  that  the  stars  possess 
surpassing  inteUigence,since  they  inhabit  the  ethereal 
region  of  the  world  and  also  are  nourished  by  the 
moist  vapours   of  sea   and   earth,  rarefied  in  their  inteiif^^nce 
passage  through  the  wide  intervening  space.    Again,  pf  the  suis 
the  consciousness  and  inteUigence  of  the  stars  is  most  by  their 
clearly  e^-inced  by  their  order  and  regularity ;  for  nJot^Q®^ 
regular  and  rhythmical  motion  is  impossible  without  which/sdue 
design,  which  contains  no  trace   of  casual  or  acci-  freewTiL°  "* 

163 


CICERO 

fortuitum ;  ordo  autem  siderum  et  in  omni  aeterni- 
tate  constantia  neque  naturam  significat  (est  enim 
plena  rationis)  neque  fortunam  quae  amica  varietati 
constantiam    respuit ;    sequitur    ergo    ut    ipsa    sua 

44  sponte  suo  sensu  ac  divinitate  moveantur.  Nec  vero 
Aristoteles  non  laudandus  est  in  eo  quod  omnia  quae 
moventur  aut  natura  moveri  censuit  aut  vi  aut  volun- 
tate  ;  moveri  autem  solem  et  lunam  et  sidera  omnia  ; 
quae  autem  natura  moverentur  haec  aut  pondere 
deorsum  aut  levitate  in  sublime  ferri,  quorum  neu- 
trum  astris  contingeret.  propterea  quod  eorum  motus 
in  orbem  circumque  ferretur ;  nec  vero  dici  potest 
vi  quadam  maiore  fieri  ut  contra  naturam  astra 
moveantur ;  quae  enim  potest  maior  esse  ?  restat 
igitur  ut  motus  astrorum  sit  voluntarius. 

"  Quae  qui  videat  non  indocte  solum  verum  etiam 
impie  faciat  si  deos  esse  neget.  Nec  sane  multum 
interest  utrum  id  neget  an  eos  omni  procuratione 
atque  actione  privet  :  milii  enim  qui  nihil  agit 
esse  omnino  non  videtur.  Esse  igitur  deos  ita  per- 
spicuum  est  ut  id  qui  neget  vix  eum  sanae  mentis 
existimem. 

45  X\^II.  "  Restat  ut  quahs  eorum  natura  sit  con- 
sideremus  ;  in  quo  nihil  est  difficihus  quam  a  con- 
suetudine  oculorum  aciem  mentis  abducere.  Ea  diffi- 
cultas  induxit  et  vulgo  inperitos  et  similes  philosophos 

"  1'robably  as  in  §  42. 

164, 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xvi.— xvii. 

dental  variation ;  now  the  order  and  eternal  regu- 
larity  of  the  constellations  indicates  ncither  a  process 
of  nature,  for  it  is  highly  rational,  nor  chance,  for 
chance  loves  variation  and  abhors  regularity ;  it 
follows  therefore  that  the  stars  move  of  their  own 
free-will    and    because    of    their    inteUigence    and 

14  divinity.  Aristotle  is  also  to  be  commended  for 
his  view°  that  the  motion  of  all  hving  bodies  is 
due  to  one  of  three  causes,  nature,  force,  or  will ; 
now  the  sun  and  moon  and  all  the  stars  are 
in  motion,  and  bodies  moved  by  nature  travel 
either  downwards  owing  to  their  weight  or  upwards 
owing  to  their  hghtness  ;  but  neither  (he  argued) 
is  the  case  with  the  heavenly  bodies,  because  their 
motion  is  revolution  in  a  circle  ;  nor  yet  can  it 
be  said  that  some  stronger  force  compels  the 
heavenly  bodies  to  travel  in  a  manner  contrary  to 
their  nature,  for  what  stronger  force  can  there  be  ? 
it  remains  therefore  that  the  motion  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  is  voluntary. 

"  Anyone  who  sees  this  truth  would  show  not  only 
ignorance  but  wickedness  if  he  denied  the  existence 
of  the  gods.  Nor  indeed  does  it  make  much  difference 
whether  he  denies  their  existence  or  deprives  them 
entirely  of  providential  care  and  of  activity  ;  since 
to  my  mind  an  entirely  inactive  being  cannot  be 
said  to  exist  at  all.  Therefore  the  existence  of  the 
gods  is  80  manifest  that  I  can  scarcely  deem  one  who 
denies  it  to  be  of  sound  mind. 

15  XVn.  "  It  remains  for  us  to  consider  the  quahties  ri.  The 
of  the  divine  nature  ;   and  on  this  subject  nothing  is  xaI"Jl-e 
more  difficult  than  to  divert  the  eye  of  the  mind  from  (§5  45-72). 
following  the  practice  of  bodily  sight.    This  difficulty 

has  caused  both  uneducated  people  generally  and 

165 


CICERO 

inperitorum  ut  nisi  figuris  hominum  constitutis  nihil 
possent  de  dis  inmortalibus  cogitare  ;  cuius  opinionis 
levitas  confutata  a  Cotta  non  desiderat  orationem 
meam.  Sed  cum  talem  esse  deum  certa  notione 
animi  praesentiamus,  primum  ut  sit  animans,  deinde 
ut  in  omni  natura  nihil  eo  sit  praestantius,  ad  hanc 
praesensionem  notionemque  nostram  nihil  video  quod 
potius  accommodem  quam  ut  primum  hunc  ipsum 
mundum  quo  nihil  excellentius  fieri  potest  animantem 

46  esse  et  deum  iudicem.  His  quam  volet  Epicurus 
iocetur,  homo  non  aptissimus  ad  iocandum  mim'me- 
que  resipiens^  patriam,  et  dicat  se  non  posse 
intellegere  quaUs  sit  volubiUs  et  rotundus  deus, 
tamen  ex  hoc  quod  etiam  ipse  probat  numquam  me 
movebit :  placet  enim  illi  esse  deos,  quia  necesse  sit 
praestantem  esse  aUquam  naturam  qua  nihil  sit 
meUus.  Mundo  autem  certe  nihil  est  meUus.  Nec 
dubium  quin  quod  animans  sit  habeatque  sensum  et 
rationem  et  mentem  id  sit  meUus   quam  id  quod 

47  his  careat.  Ita  efficitur  animantem,  sensus  mentis 
rationis  mundum  esse  compotem  ;  qua  ratione  deum 
esse  mundum  concluditur. 

"  Sed  haec  paulo  post  faciUus  cognoscentur  ex 
iis  rebus  ipsis  quas  mundus  efficit.  XVIII.  Interea, 
VeUei,  noU  quaeso  prae  te  ferre  vos  plane  expertes 
esse   doctrinae.     Conum   tibi    ais    et   cyUndrum   et 

*  resipiens  dett.  :  respiciens  A^  B, 

166 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xvii.— xviii. 

those  philosophers  who  resemble  the  uneducated  to  (i)  Tiie 
be  unable  to  conceive  of  the  immortal  gods  without  is^s'pher?ca?, 
setting   before   themselves   the   forms   of  men  :     aj^isseenin 
shallow  mode  of  thought  which  Cotta  has  exposed  which  is 
and  which  therefore  calls  for  no  discussion  from  me.  ^ivme. 
But  assuming  that  we  have  a  definite  and  precon- 
ceived  idea  of  a  deity  as,  first,  a  Hving  being,  and 
secondly,  a  being  unsurpassed  in  excellence  by  any- 
thing  else  in  the  whole  of  nature,  I  can  see  nothing 
that  satisfies  this  preconception  or  idea  of  ours  more 
fully  than,  first,  the  judgement  that  this  world,  which 
must  necessarily  be  the  most  excellent  of  all  things, 

6  is  itself  a  Hving  being  and  a  god.  Let  Epicurus  jest 
at  this  notion  as  he  will — and  he  is  a  person  who  jokes 
with  difficulty,  and  has  but  the  slightest  smack  of  his 
native  Attic  wit, — let  him  protest  his  inabiUty  to  con- 
ceive  of  god  as  a  round  and  rotating  body.  Never- 
theless  he  will  never  dislodge  me  from  one  beUef 
which  even  he  himself  accepts  :  he  holds  that  gods 
exist,  on  the  ground  that  there  must  necessarily  be 
some  mode  of  being  of  outstanding  and  supreme 
excellence ;  now  clearly  nothing  can  be  more  ex- 
cellent  than  the  world.  Nor  can  it  be  doubted  that  a 
living  being  endowed  with  sensation,  reason  and  in- 
telhgence  must  excel  a  being  devoid  of  those  attri- 

7  butes  ;  hence  it  foilows  that  the  worki  is  a  Hving 
being  and  possesses  sensation,  inteUigence  and 
reason  ;  and  this  argument  leads  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  world  is  god. 

"  But  these  points  wiU  appear  more  readily  a  Httle 
later  merely  from  a  consideration  of  the  creatures  that 
the  world  produces.  XVIII.  In  the  meantime,  pray, 
VeUeius,  do  not  parade  your  schoors  utter  ignorance 
of  science.    You  say  that  you  think  a  cone,  a  cyUnder 

167 


CICERO 

pyramidem  pulchriorem  quam  sphaeram  videri. 
Novum  etiam  oculorum  iudicium  habetis !  Sed 
sint  ista  pulchriora  dumtaxat  aspectu, — quod  mihi 
tamen  ipsum  non  videtur,  quid  enim  pulchrius  ea 
figura  quae  sola  omnis  aUas  figuras  complexa  continet, 
quaeque  nihil  asperitatis  habere  nihil  offensionis 
potest,  nihil  incisum  anguHs  nihil  anfractibus  nihil 
eminens  nihil  lacunosum  ?  cumque  duae  formae 
praestantes  sint,  ex  sohdis  globus  (sic  enim  o-^atpav 
interpretari  placet),  ex  planis  autem  circulus  aut 
orbis,  qui  kvkXos  Graece  dicitur,  his  duabus  formis 
contingit  solis  ut  omnes  earum  partes  sint  inter  se 
simillumae  a  medioque  tantundem^  absit  <omne>* 

48  extremum,  quo  nihil  fieri  potest  aptius — sed  si  haec 
non  videtis,  quia  numquam  eruditum  illum  pulverem 
attigistis,  ne  hoc  quidem  physici  intellegere  potuistis, 
hanc  aequabiUtatem  motus  constantiamque  ordi- 
num  in  aha  figura  non  potuisse  servari  ?  Itaque 
nihil  potest  esse  indoctius  quam  quod  a  vobis  ad- 
firmari  solet :  nec  enim  hunc  ipsum  mundum  pro 
certo  rotundum  esse  dicitis,  nam  posse  fieri  ut  sit 
aha  figura,  innumerabilesque  mundos  ahos  aharum 

49  esse  formarum.  Quae  si  bis  bina  quot  essent  didi- 
cisset  Epicurus  certe  non  diceret  ;  sed  dum  palato 
quid  sit  optimum  iudicat,  '  caeH  palatum,'  ut  ait 
Ennius,  non  suspexit, 

XIX.  "  Nam  cum  duo  sint  genera  siderum,  quorum 

*  tantundem  Madvig  :  tantum.         ^  add.  Brieger. 

"  Ancient   geometricians    drew   their   diagrams   in    dust 
sprinkled  on  a  board,  or  on  the  ground. 

168 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xviii.— xix. 

and  a  pyramid  more  beautiful  than  a  sphere.  Why, 
even  in  matters  of  taste  you  Epicureans  have  a 
criterion  of  your  o^ati  !  However,  assuming  that  the 
figures  which  you  mention  are  more  beautiful  to  the 
eye — though  for  my  part  I  don't  think  them  so,  for 
what  can  be  more  beautiful  than  the  figure  that  en- 
circles  and  encloses  in  itself  all  other  figures,  and  that 
can  possess  no  rougliness  or  point  of  colhsion  on  its 
surface,  no  indentation  or  concavity,  no  protuberance 
or  depression  ?  There  are  two  forms  that  excel 
all  others,  among  sohd  bodies  the  globe  (for  so  we 
may  translate  the  Greek  sphaera),  and  among  plane 
figures  the  round  or  circle,  the  Greek  kyklos  ;  well 
then,  these  two  forms  alone  possess  the  property  of 
absolute  uniformity  in  all  their  parts  and  of  having 
every  point  on  the  circumference  equidistant  from 
the  centre  ;   and  nothing  can  be  more  compact  than 

48  that.  Still,  if  you  Epicureans  cannot  see  this,  as  you 
have  never  meddled  with  that  learned  dust,^  could 
you  not  have  grasped  even  so  much  of  natural  philo- 
sophy  as  to  understand  that  the  uniform  motion  and 
regular  disposition  of  the  heavenly  bodies  could  not 
have  been  maintained  with  any  other  shape  ?  Hence 
nothing  could  be  more  unscientific  than  your  favourite 
assertion,  that  it  is  not  certain  that  our  world  itself  is 
round,  since  it  may  possibly  have  some  other  form, 
and  there  are  countless  numbers  of  workls,  all  of 

49  different  shapes.  Had  but  Epicurus  learnt  that  twice 
two  are  four  he  certainly  would  not  talk  hke  that  ; 
but  while  making  his  palate  the  test  of  the  chief  good, 
he  forgets  to  hft  up  his  eyes  to  what  Ennius  calls 
*  the  palate  of  the  sky.' 

XIX.  "  For    there    are    two    kinds    of   heavenly 

169 


CICERO 

alterum  spatiis  inmutabilibus  ab  ortu  ad  occasum 
commeans  nullum  umquam  cursus  sui  vestigium  in- 
flectat,  alterum  autem  continuas  conversiones  duas 
isdem  spatiis  cursibusque  conficiat,  ex  utraque  re 
et  mundi  volubilitas,  quae  nisi  in  globosa  forma 
esse  non  posset,  et  stellarum  rotundi  ambitus  co- 
gnoscuntur. 

"  Primusque  sol,  qui  astrorum  tenetprincipatum,ita 
movetur  ut  cum  terras  larga  luce  compleverit  eas- 
dem  modo  his  modo  illis  ex  partibus  opacet  ;  ipsa 
enim  umbra  terrae  soli  officiens  noctem  efficit.  Noc- 
turnorum  autem  spatiorum  eadem  est  aequabilitas 
quae  diurnorum.  Eiusdemque  solis  tum  accessus  mo- 
dici  tum  recessus  et  frigoris  et  caloris  modum  tem^ 
perant.  Circumitus  enim  solis  orbium  quinque  et 
sexaginta  et  trecentorum  quarta  fere  diei  parte 
addita  conversionem  conficiunt  annuam  ;  inflectens 
autem  sol  cursum  tum  ad  septem  triones  tum  ad 
meridiem  aestates  et  hiemes  efficit  et  ea  duo 
tempora  quorum  alterum  hiemi  senescenti  adiunctum 
est  alterum  aestati.  Ita  ex  quattuor  temporum 
mutationibus  omnium  quae  terra  marique  gignuntur 
initia  causaeque  ducuntur. 
50  "lam  sohs  annuos  cursus  spatiis  menstruis  luna 
consequitur,  cuius  tenuissimum  lumen  facit  proxi- 
mus  accessus  ad  solem,  digressus  autem  longissimus 
quisque  plenissimum.  Neque  solum  eius  species  ac 
forma  mutatur  tum  crescendo  tum  defectibus  in 
initia   recurrendo,   sed   etiam  regio,   quae  tum   est 

"  The  fixed  stars  are  carried  round  the  polar  axis  by  the 
general  celestial  movement,  while  the  planets  have  two 
simultaneoiis  motions,  (1)  that  of  the  fixed  stars,  (2)  a  move- 
ment  of  their  own,  by  which  they  revolve  (as  was  supposed) 
round  the  earth. 
170 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  11.  xix. 

bodies,'*    some  that  travel  from  east  to  west  in  un-  (2)  The 
changing  paths,  without  ever  making  the  shiihtest  actiSiV  is 
deviation  in  their  course,  while  the  others  perform  rotatory 

.      '      .  ^  motion,  as 

two   unbroken   revohitions  m   the   same  paths   and  shown  m 
courses.    Now  both  of  these  facts  indicate  at  once  the  bJ|d?e?J  "^^ 
rotatory   motion   of  the    firmament,   which   Is   only 
possible   A\-ith   a   spherical   shape,   and   the   circular 
revolutions  of  the  heavenly  bodies. 

"  Take  first  of  all  the  sun,  which  is  the  chief  of  the  the  sun, 
celestial  bodies.  Its  motion  is  such  that  it  first  fills 
the  countries  of  the  earth  with  a  flood  of  hght,  and 
then  leaves  them  in  darkness  now  on  one  side  and 
now  on  the  other  ;  for  night  is  caused  merely  by  the 
shadow  of  the  earth,  which  intercepts  the  hght  of 
the  sun.  Its  daily  and  nightly  paths  have  the  same 
regukirity.  Also  the  sun  by  at  one  time  shghtly 
approaching  and  at  another  time  shghtly  receding 
causes  a  moderate  variation  of  temperature.  For 
the  passage  of  about  365^  diurnal  revolutions  of  the 
sun  completes  the  circuit  of  a  year  ;  and  by  bending 
its  course  now  towards  the  north  and  now  towards 
the  south  the  sun  causes  summers  and  winters  and 
the  two  seasons  of  which  one  follows  the  waning  of 
^\-inter  and  the  other  that  of  summer.  Thus  from  the 
changes  of  the  four  seasons  are  derived  the  origins 
and  causes  of  all  those  creatures  which  come  into 
existence  on  land  and  in  the  sea. 
50  "  Again  the  moon  in  her  monthly  paths  overtakes  themoon, 
the  yearly  course  of  the  sun  ;  and  her  hght  wanes  to 
its  minimum  when  she  approaches  nearest  to  the  sun, 
and  w^axes  to  its  maximum  each  time  that  she  recedes 
farthest  from  him.  And  not  only  is  her  shape  and 
outhne  altered  by  her  alternate  waxing  and  waning 
or  returning  to  her  starting-point,  but  also  her  posi- 

171 


CICERO 

aquilonia  tum^  australis.  In^  lunae  quoque  cursu 
est  et  brumae  quaedam  et  solstitii  similitudo, 
multaque  ab  ea  manant  et  fluunt  quibus  et  animantes 
alantur  augescantque  et  pubescant  maturitatemque 
adsequantur  quae  oriuntur  e  terra. 

51  XX.  "  Maxume  vero  sunt  admirabiles  motus  earum 
quinque  stellarum  quae  falso  vocantur  errantes — nihil 
enim  errat  quod  in  omni  aeternitate  conservat  pro- 
gressus  et  regressus  reliquosque  motus  constantis  et 
ratos.  Quod  eo  est  admirabilius  in  his  stelHs  quas 
dicimusj  quia  tum  occultantur  tum  rursus  aperiuntur, 
tum  adeunt  tum  recedunt,  tum  antecedunt  tum 
autem  subsequuntur,  tum  celerius  moventur  tum 
tardius  tum  omnino  ne  moventur  quidem  sed  ad 
quoddam  tempus  insistunt.  Quarum  ex  disparibus 
motionibus  magnum  annum  mathematici  nomina- 
verunt,  qui  tum  efRcitur  cum  sohs  et  lunae  et 
quinque  errantium  ad  eandem  inter  se  compara- 
tionem  confectis  omnium  spatiis  est  facta  conversio. 

62  Quae  quam  longa  sit  magna  quaestio  est,  esse  vero 
certam  et  definitam  necesse  est.  Nam  ea  quae 
Saturni  stella  dicitur  <i>ttuojvque  a  Graecis  nominatur, 
quae  a  terra  abest  plurimum,  triginta  fere  annis 
cursum  suum  conficit,  in  quo  cursu  multa  mirabiUter 
efficiens  tum  antecedendo  tum  retardando,  tum 
vespertinis  temporibus  dehtiscendo  tum  matutinis 
rursum    se    aperiendo,    nihil    inmutat    sempiternis 

^  tum  det.  :  aut  A^  B. 
"  <inde>  vel  <nam>  vel  <ita>  in  edd. 

<*  Perhaps  from  Aristotle's  lost  De  Philosophia,  see  i.  33  n. 
The  Cosmic  Year  is  attributed  to  the  Pythagoreans  and  to 
Heraclitus:  Plato,  Timaeus  39,  gives  it  as  10,000  years. 

*  Herschel's  figures,  given  by  Mayor,are  (omitting  hours)» 
172 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xix.— xx. 

tion  in  the  sky,  which  at  one  time  is  in  the  north  and 
another  in  the  south.  The  moon's  course  also  has  a 
sort  of  winter  and  summer  solstice  ;  and  she  emits 
many  streams  of  influence,  which  supply  animal 
creatures  with  nourishment  and  stimulate  their 
growth  and  which  cause  plants  to  flourish  and  attain 
maturity. 

61  XX.  "  Most  marvellous  are  the  motions  of  the  five  thepjineta 
stars,  falsely  called  planets  or  wandering  stars — for  a 

tliing  cannot  be  said  to  wander  if  it  preserves  for  all 
eternity  fixed  and  regular  motions,  forward,  back- 
ward  and  in  other  directions.  And  this  regularity  is 
all  the  more  marvellous  in  the  case  of  the  stars  we 
speak  of,  because  at  one  time  they  are  hidden  and  at 
another  they  are  uncovered  again  ;  now  they  ap- 
proach,  now  retire  ;  now  precede,  now  follow  ;  now 
move  faster,  now  slower,  now  do  not  move  at  all  but 
remain  for  a  time  stationary.  On  the  diverse  motions 
of  the  planets  the  mathematicians  have  based  what 
they  call  the  Great  Year,"  which  is  completed  when 
the  sun,  moon  and  five  planets  having  all  finished 
their  courses  have  returned  to  the  same  positions 

62  relative  to  one  another.  The  length  of  this  period 
is  hotly  debated,  but  it  must  necessarily  be  a  fixed 
and  definite  time.^  For  the  planet  called  Saturn's,  the 
Greek  name  of  which  is  Phae?io?i  (the  shiner),  which  is 
the  farthest  away  from  the  earth,  completes  its  orbit 
in  about  thirty  years,  in  the  course  of  which  period  it 
passes  through  a  number  of  remarkable  phases,  at  one 
time  accelerating  and  at  another  time  retarding  its 
velocity,  now  disappearing  in  the  evening,  then  re- 
appearing  in  the  morning,  yet  without  varying  in  the 

Saturn  29  years  174  days,  Jupiter  11  years  315  days,  Mars 
1  year  321  days,  Venus  224  days,  Mercury  87  days. 

173 


CICERO 

saeclorum  aetatibus  quin  eadem  isdem  temporibus 
efficiat.  Infra  autem  hanc  propius  a  terra  lovis 
stella  fertur  quae  ^akOuiv  dicitur,  eaque  eundem 
duodecim  signorum  orbem  annis  duodecim  conficit 
easdemque  quas  Saturni  stella  efficit  in  cursu  varie- 

63  tates.  Huic  autem  proximum  inferiorem  orbem 
tenet  Ilvpoets,  quae  stella  Martis  appellatur,  eaque 
quattuor  et  viginti  mensibus  sex  ut  opinor  diebus 
minus  eundem  lustrat  orbem  quem  duae  superiores. 
Infra  hanc  autem  stella  Mercurii  est  (ea  SrtA/^wv 
appellatur  a  Graecis),  quae  anno  fere  vertente 
signiferum  lustrat  orbem  neque  a  sole  longius  um- 
quam  unius  signi  intervallo  discedit  tum  antevertens 
tum  subsequens.  Infima  est  quinque  errantium 
terraeque  proxima  stella  Veneris,  quae  ^(orr<j>6pos 
Graece  Lucifer  Latine  dicitur  cum  antegreditur 
solem,  cum  subsequitur  autem  "Ea-Trepos ;  ea  cursum 
anno  conficit  et  latitudinem  lustrans  signiferi 
orbis  et  longitudinem,  quod  idem  faciunt  stellae  su- 
periores,  neque  umquam  ab  sole  duorum  signorum 
intervallo  longius  discedit  tum  antecedens  tum  sub- 
sequens. 

64  XXI.  "  Hanc  igitur  in  stelHs  constantiam,  hanc 
tantam  tam  variis  cursibus  in  omni  aeternitate  con- 
venientiam  temporum  non  possum  intellegere  sine 
mente  ratione  consiHo.  Quae  cum  in  sideribus  in- 
esse  videamus,  non  possumus  ca  ipsa  non  in  deorum 
numero  reponere. 

"  Nec  vero    eae  stellae  quae  inerrantes  vocantur 
non  significant  eandem  mentem  atque  prudentiam, 

174 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  11.  xx.— xxi. 

least  degree  throughout  all  the  ages  of  eternity,  but 
ahvays  doing  the  same  things  at  the  same  times. 
Below  this  and  nearer  to  the  earth  moves  the  star 
of  Jupiter,  called  Phaethon  (the  blazing  star),  which 
completes  the  same  circuit  of  the  twelve  signs  of  the 
zodiac  in  twelve  years,  and  makes  the  same  varia- 

»3  tions  during  its  course  as  the  star  of  Saturn.  The 
orbit  next  below  is  that  of  Pi/roeis  (the  fiery),  which 
is  called  the  star  of  Mars,  and  this  covers  the  same 
orbit  as  the  two  planets  above  it  in  twenty-four 
months  all  but  (I  think)  six  days.  Below  this  in  turn 
is  the  star  of  ^lercury,  called  by  the  Greeks  Siilhon 
(the  gleaming),  which  completes  the  circuit  of  the 
zodiac  in  about  the  period  of  a  year,  and  is  never 
distant  from  the  sun  more  than  the  space  of  a  single 
sign,  though  it  sometimes  precedes  the  sun  and 
sometimes  follows  it.  Lowest  of  the  five  planets  and 
nearest  to  the  earth  is  the  star  of  Venus,  called  in 
Greek  Phosphoros  (the  hght-bringer)  and  in  Latin 
Lucifer  when  it  precedes  the  sun,  but  when  it 
follows  it  Hesperos  ;  this  planet  completes  its  orbit 
in  a  year,  traversing  the  zodiac  \Y\\h.  a  zigzag  move- 
ment  as  do  the  planets  above  it,  and  never  distant 
more  than  the  space  of  two  signs  from  the  sun,  though 
sometimes  in  front  of  it  and  sometimes  behind  it. 

54  XXL  "  This  regularity  therefore  in  the  stars,  this 
exact  punctuahty  throughout  all  eternity  notwith- 
standing  the  great  variety  of  their  courses,  is  to  me 
incomprehensible  without  rational  intelhgence  and 
purpose.  And  if  mc  observe  these  attributes  in  the 
planets,  we  cannot  fail  to  enrol  even  them  among 
the  number  of  the  gods. 

"  Moreover  the  so-called  fixed  stars  also  indicate  and  the 
the  same  intelligence  and  wisdom.    Their  revolutions  '^^®^  ^^^ 

175 


CICERO 

quarum  est  cotidiana  conveniens  constansque  con- 
versio  nec  habent  aetherios  cursus  neque  caelo 
inhaerentes,  ut  plerique  dicunt  physicae  rationis 
ignari  ;  non  est  enim  aetheris  ea  natura  ut  vi  sua 
stellas  conplexa  contorqueat,  nam  tenuis  ac  perlucens 
et  aequabiU  calore  sufFusus  aether  non  satis  aptus 

55  ad  stellas  continendas  videtur  ;  habent  igitur  suam 
sphaeram  stellae  inerrantes  ab  aetheria  coniunctione 
secretam  et  Uberam.  Earum  autem  perennes  cursus 
atque  perpetui  cum  admirabiU  incredibiUque  constan- 
tia  declarant  in  his  \im  et  mentem  esse  divinam,  ut 
haec  ipsa  qui  non  sentiat  deorum  vim  habere  is  nihil 
omnino  sensurus  esse  \ideatur. 

66  "  Nulla  igitur  in  caelo  nec  fortuna  nec  temeritas 
nec  erratio  nec  vanitas  inest  contraque  omnis  ordo 
veritas  ratio  constantia  ;  quaeque  his  vacant  emen- 
tita  et  falsa  plenaque  erroris,  ea  circum  terras  infra 
lunam  (quae  omnium  ultima  est)  in  terrisque  ver- 
santur.  Caelestium^  ergo  admirabilem  ordinem  in- 
credibilemque  constantiam,  ex  qua  conservatio  et 
salus  omnium  omnis  oritur,  qui  vacare  mente  putat  is 
ipse  mentis  expers  habendus  est. 

57  "  Haud  ergo,  ut  opinor,  erravero  si  a  principe 
investigandae  veritatis  huius  disputationis  principium 
duxero.  XXII.  Zeno  igitur  naturam  ita  definit 
ut  eam  dicat  ignem  esse  artificiosum,  ad  gignendum 

*  caelestium  dett. :  caelestem  A^  B. 


176 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxi.— xxii. 

recur  daily  with  exact  rcgularity.  It  is  not  the  case 
that  they  are  carried  along  by  the  aether  or  that  their 
courses  are  fixed  in  the  tirmament,  as  most  people 
ignorant  of  natural  philosophy  aver  ;  for  the  aether 
is  not  of  such  a  nature  as  to  hold  the  stars  and  cause 
them  to  revolve  by  its  own  force,  since  being  rare  and 
translucent  and  of  uniform  diffused  heat,  the  aether 
does  not  appear  to  be  well  adapted  to  contain  the 

55  stars.  Therefore  the  fixed  stars  have  a  sphere  of 
their  o\vn,  separate  from  and  not  attached  to  the 
aether.  Now  the  continual  and  unceasing  revolutions 
of  these  stars,  marvellously  and  incredibly  regular  as 
they  are,  clearly  show  that  these  are  endowed  with 
divine  power  and  intelhgence  ;  so  that  anyone  who 
cannot  perceive  that  they  themselves  possess  divinity 
would  seem  to  be  incapable  of  understanding  any- 
thing  at  all. 

56  "  In  the  heavens  therefore  there  is  nothing  of 
chance  or  hazard,  no  error,  no  frustration,  but 
absolute  order,  accuracy,  calculation  and  regularity. 
Whatever  lacks  these  quahties,  whatever  is  false  and 
spurious  and  full  of  error,  belongs  to  the  region  be- 
tween  the  earth  and  the  moon  (the  last  of  all  the 
heavenly  bodies),  and  to  the  surface  of  the  earth. 
Anyone  therefore  who  thinks  that  the  marvellous 
order  and  incredible  regularity  of  the  heavenly 
bodies,  which  is  the  sole  source  of  preservation  and 
safety  for  all  things,  is  not  rational,  himself  cannot 
be  deemed  a  rational  being. 

67      "  I  therefore  beheve  that  I  shall  not  be  wrong  if  ^pJ^^ 
in  discussing  this  subject  I  take  my  first  principle  nature 
from  the  prince  of  seekers  after  truth,  Zeno  himsclf.  ftsTreative 
XXII.  Now   Zeno   gives   this   definition   of  nature  :  artistic  and 
*  nature  (he  says)  is  a  craftsmanhke  fire,  proceediiv^:  JfJti^vity?  ^^ 

177 


CICERO 

progredientem  via.  Censet  enim  artis  maxume 
proprium  esse  creare  et  gignere,  quodque  in  operibus 
nostrarum  artium  manus  efficiat  id  multo  artificiosius 
naturam  efficere,  id  est  ut  dixi  ignem  artificiosum, 
magistrum  artium  reliquarum.  Atque  hac  quidem 
ratione  omnis  natura  artificiosa  est,  quod  habet  quasi 

68  \iam  quandam  et  sectam  quam  sequatur  ;  ipsius 
vero  mundi,  qui  omnia  conplexu  suo  coercet  et  con- 
tinet,  natura  non  artificiosa  solum  sed  plane  artifex 
ab  eodem  Zenone  dicitur,  consultrix  et  provida 
utihtatum  opportunitatumque  omnium.  Atque  ut 
ceterae  naturae  suis  seminibus  quaeque  gignuntur 
augescunt  continentur,  sic  natura  mundi  omnes 
motus  habet  voluntarios  conatusque  et  adpetitiones 
quas  opfxds  Graeci  vocant,  et  his  consentaneas 
actiones  sic  adhibet  ut  nosmet  ipsi  qui  animis  move- 
mur  et  sensibus.  Tahs  igitur  mens  mundi  cum  sit 
ob  eamque  causam  vel  prudentia  vel  providentia 
appellari  recte  possit  (Graece  enim  rrpovoLa  dicitur), 
haec  potissimum  providet  et  in  his  maxime  est 
occupata,  primum  ut  mundus  quam  aptissimus  sit 
ad  permanendum,  deinde  ut  nulla  re  egeat,  maxume 
autem  ut  in  eo  eximia  pulchritudo  sit  atque  omnis 
ornatus. 

69  XXIII.  "  Dictum  est  de  universo  mundo,  dictum 
etiam  est  de  sideribus,  ut  iam  prope  modum  appareat 
multitudo  nec  cessantium  deorum  nec  ea  quae  agant 
molientium  cum  labore  operoso  ac  molesto. .  Non 

**  Diogenes  Laertius  vii.  156  Trup  TexviKou  65(^  ^&bL^oi'  els 
y^uecnv. 

*  Aristotle,  Phys.  ii.  2  rj  t^x^V  /J-tfJ-e^^raL  ttjv  tpiaiv, 
"  Diogenes  L.  vii.  86  Tex^iT-q^  6  \6yos  r^s  6p/ji.r]s, 

178 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxii.— xxiii. 

methodically  to  the  work  of  generation.' **  For  he 
holds  that  the  special  function  of  an  art  or  craft  is  to 
create  and  generate,  and  that  what  in  the  processes 
of  our  arts  is  done  by  the  Iiand  is  done  with  far  more 
skilful  craftsmanship  by  nature,^  that  is,  as  I  said,  by 
that  '  craftsmanhke  '  fire  which  is  the  teacher  of  the 
other  arts.  And  on  this  theory,  while  each  depart- 
ment  of  nature  is  '  craftsmanhke,'  in  the  sense  of 
having  a  method  or  path  marked  out  for  it  to  follow, 

68  the  nature  of  the  world  itself,  which  encloses  and 
contains  all  things  in  its  embrace,  is  styled  by  Zeno 
not  merely  '  craftsmanhke  '  but  actually  '  a  crafts- 
man,'^  whose  foresight  plans  out  the  work  to  serve  its 
use  and  purpose  in  every  detail.  And  as  the  other 
natural  substances  are  generated,  reared  and  sus- 
tained  each  by  Its  o\mi  seeds,  so  the  world-nature 
experiences  all  those  motions  of  the  will,  those  im- 
pulses  of  conation  and  desire,  that  the  Greeks  call 
hormae,  and  follows  these  up  vrith.  the  appropriate 
actions  in  the  same  way  as  do  we  ourselves,  who 
experience  emotions  and  sensations.  Such  being  the 
nature  of  the  world-mind,  it  can  therefore  correctly 
be  designated  as  prudence  or  providence  (for  in 
Greek  it  is  termed  pronoid)  ;  and  this  providence  is 
chiefly  directed  and  concentrated  upon  three  objects, 
namely  to  secure  for  the  world,  first,  the  structure 
best  fitted  for  survival ;  next,  absolute  completeness  ; 
but  chiefly,  consummate  beauty  and  embeUishment 
of  every  kind. 

69  XXlil.  "  We  have  discussed  the  world  as  a  whole, 
and  we  have  also  discussed  the  heavenly  bodies  ;  so 
that  there  now  stands  fairly  well  revealed  to  our  view 
a  vast  company  of  gods  who  are  neither  idle  nor  yet 
perform  their  activities  with  irksome  and  laborious 

179 


CICKRO 

enim  venis  et  ner\ds  et  ossibus  continentiir  nec  iis 
escis  aut  potionibus  vescuntur  ut  aut  nimis  acres  aut 
nimis  concretos  umores  colligant,  nec  iis  corporibus 
sunt  ut  casus  aut  ictus  extimescant  aut  morbos 
metuant  ex  defetigatione  membrorum,  quae  verens 
Epicurus  monogrammos  deos  et  nihil  agentes  com- 

60  mentus  est.  Illi  autem  pulcherrima  forma  praediti 
purissimaque  in  regione  caeli  collccati  ita  feruntur 
moderanturque  cursus  ut  ad  omnia  conservanda  et 
tuenda  consensisse  videantur, 

"  Multae  autem  aliae  naturae  deorum  ex  magnis 
beneficiis  eorum  non  sine  causa  et  a  Graeciae  sapien- 
tissimis  et  a  maioribus  nostris  constitutae  nominatae- 
que  sunt.  Quicquid  enim  magnam  utihtatem  generi 
adferret  humano,  id  non  sine  di\ina  bonitate  erga 
homines  fieri  arbitrabantur.  Itaque  tum  illud  quod 
erat  a  deo  natum^  nomine  ipsius  dei  nuncupabant, 
ut  cum  fruges  Cererem  appellamus  vinum  autem 
Liberum,  ex  quo  illud  Terentii  : 

sine  Cerere  et  Libero  friget  \'enus, 

61  tum  autem  res  ipsa  in  qua  vis  inest  maior  aliqua 
sic  appellatur  ut  ea  ipsa^  nominetur  deus,  ut  Fides, 
ut  Mens,  quas  in  Capitoho  dedicatas  videmus  proxime 
a  M.  Aemiho  Scauro,  ante  autem  ab  A.  Atilio 
Calatino  erat  Fides  consecrata.  Vides  Virtutis  tem- 
plum,  vides  Honoris  a  M.  Marcello  renovatum  quod 

^  datum  vel  donatum  Davies. 
^  ipsa  B  :  ipsa  vis  A,  ipsa  res  dett. 

"  A  probable  correction  reads  '  given  by,'  c/.  i.  38  and  118. 

**  The  language  seems  to  indicate  that  the  building  was 
visiblc  from  the  exedra  of  Cotta's  mansion,  where  the  dis- 
cussion  took  place  (i.  14).  A  temple  near  the  Porta  Capena 
was  dedicated  to  Ilonos  by  Fabius  Cunctator,  and  later 
enlarged  by  Marcellus  and  dedicated  to  lionos  and  Virtus 
180 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxiii. 

toil.  For  they  have  no  framework  of  veins  and  sinews  ^ 
and  bones  ;  nor  do  thoy  consume  such  kinds  of  food 
and  drink  as  to  make  them  contract  too  sharp  or  too 
sluggish  a  condition  of  the  humours  ;  nor  are  tlicir 
bodies  such  as  to  make  them  fear  falls  or  blows  or 
apprehcnd  diseasc  from  exhaustion  of  their  members 
— dangcrs  which  led  Epicurus  to  invent  his  un-^ub- 

60  stantial,  do-nothing  gods.  On  the  contrary,  they  are 
endowed  with  supreme  beauty  of  form,  they  are 
situated  in  the  purest  region  of  the  sky,  and  thcy  so 
control  their  motions  and  courses  as  to  seem  to  be 
conspiring  together  to  preserve  and  to  protect  the 
universe. 

"  Many  other  divinities  however  have  with  good  (4)  The  gods 
reason  been  recognized  and  named  both  by  the  wisest  worsi^i^p  are 
men  of  Greece  and  by  our  ancestors  from  the  great  tiie  divine 
benefits  that  they  bestow.    For  it  was  thought  that  deified,  or 
whatever  confers  great  utility  on  the  human  race  must  ^''rtiies  and 
be  due  to  the  operation  of  divine  benevolence  towards  personified, 
men.     Thus  sometimes  a  thing  sprung  from^  a  god 
was  called  by  the  name  of  the  god  himself ;   as  when 
we  speak  of  corn  as  Ceres,  of  wine  as  Liber,  so  that 
Terence  writes  : 

when  Ceres  and  when  Liber  fail, 
Venus  is  cold. 

61  In  other  cases  some  exceptionally  potent  force  is 
itself  designated  by  a  title  of  divinity,  for  example 
Faith  and  Mind  ;  we  see  the  shrines  on  the  Capitol 
lately  dedicated  to  them  both  by  Marcus  Aemilius 
Scaurus,  and  Faith  had  previously  been  deified  by 
Aulus  Atihus  Calatinus.  You  see  ^  the  temple  of 
Mrtue,  restored  as  the  temple  of  Honour  b}'^  Marcus 

jointly.     Another  temple  dedicated  to  these  two  deities  by 
Marius  stood  on  the  Capitol. 

181 


CICERO 

multis  ante  annis  erat  bello  Ligustico  a  Q.  Maximo 
dedicatum.  Quid  Opis,  quid  Salutis,  quid  Concor- 
diae  Libertatis  Victoriae  ?  quarum  omnium  rerum 
quia  vis  erat  tanta  ut  sine  deo  regi^  non  posset,  ipsa 
res  deorum  nomen  obtinuit.  Quo  ex  genere  Cupi- 
dinis  et  Voluptatis  et  Lubentinae  Veneris  vocabula 
consecrata  sunt,  vitiosarum  rerum  neque  naturalium 
(quamquam  ^^elleius  aliter  existimat),  sed  tamen 
ea    ipsa  vitia  natura^  vehementius   saepe   pulsant. 

62  Utilitatum  igitur  magnitudine  constituti  sunt  ei  di 
qui  utilitates  quasque  gignebant,  atque  his  quidem 
nominibus  quae  paulo  ante  dicta  sunt  quae  vis  sit 
in  quoque  declaratur  deo. 

XXIV.  "  Suscepit  autem  vita  hominum  consue- 
tudoque  communis  ut  beneficiis  excellentis  viros  in 
caelum  fama  ac  voluntate  tollerent.  Hinc  Hercules 
hinc  Castor  et  Pollux  hinc  Aesculapius  liinc  Liber 
etiam  (hunc  dico  Liberum  Semela  natum,  non  eum 
quem  nostri  maiores  auguste  sancteque  [Liberum]^ 
cum  Cerere  et  Libera  consecraverunt,  quod  quale  sit 
ex  mysteriis  intellegi  potest ;  sed  quod  ex  nobis  natos 
hberos  appellamus,  idcirco  Cerere  nati  nominati  sunt 
Liber  et  Libera,  quod  in  Libera^  servant,  in  Libero^ 
non  item) — hinc  etiam  Romulus,®  quem  quidem 
eundem  esse  Quirinum  putant,  quorum  cum  remane- 
rent  animi  atque  aeternitate  fruerentur,  rite  di  sunt 
habiti,  cum  et  optimi  essent  et  aeterni. 

63  "  Aha  quoque  ex  ratione  et  quidem  physica  magna 
fluxit  multitudo  deorum  qui  induti  specie  humana 

^  intellegi  Goethe. 

2  natura  ^i,  B  :  naturam  B  corr. 

•  Liberum  om.  dett.         *  Libero  dett.         ^  Libera  dett, 

^  Romulus  Marsus ;   Ptomulum. 


182 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  11.  xxiii.— xxiv. 

Marcellus,  but  founded  many  years  before  by  Quintus 
Maximus  in  the  time  of  the  Ligurian  war.  Again, 
there  are  the  temples  of  Wealth,  Safety,  Concord, 
Liberty  and  Victory,  all  of  which  things,  being  so 
powerful  as  necessarily  to  imply  divine  governance, 
were  themselves  designated  as  gods.  In  the  same 
class  the  names  of  Desire,  Pleasure  and  Venus 
Lubentina  have  been  deified — things  vicious  and  un- 
natural  (although  Velleius  thinks  otherwise),  yet  the 
urge  of  these  vices  often  overpowers  natural  instinct. 

)2  Those  gods  therefore  who  were  the  authors  of  various 
benefits  owed  their  deification  to  the  value  of  the 
benefits  which  they  bestowed,  and  indeed  the  names 
that  I  just  now  enumerated  express  the  various 
powers  of  the  gods  that  bear  them. 

XXIV.  "  Human  experience  moreover  and  general  or  depai-ted 
custom  have  made  it  a  practice  to  confer  the  deifica-  beuefactors, 
tion  of  renown  and  gratitude  upon  distinguished 
benefactors.  This  is  the  origin  of  Hercules,  of  Castor 
and  Pollux,  of  Aesculapius,  and  also  of  Liber  (I  mean 
Liber  the  son  of  Semele,  not  the  Liber  whom  our 
ancestors  solemnly  and  devoutly  consecrated  with 
Ceres  and  Libera,  the  import  of  which  joint  consecra- 
tion  may  be  gathered  from  the  mysteries  ;  but  Liber 
and  Libera  were  so  named  as  Ceres'  offspring,  that 
being  the  meaning  of  our  Latin  word  liberi — a  use 
which  has  sur\dved  in  the  case  of  Libera  but  not  of 
Liber) — and  this  is  also  the  origin  of  Romulus,  who  is 
beheved  to  be  the  same  as  Quirinus.  And  thcse 
benefactors  were  duly  deemed  divine,  as  being  both 
supremely  good  and  immortal,  because  their  souls 
survived  and  enjoyed  eternal  hfe. 

33  "  Another  theory  also,  and  that  a  scientific  one, 
has  becn  the  source  of  a  number  of  deities,  who  clad 

183 


CICERO 

fabulas    poetis    suppeditaverunt,    hominum    autem 

vitam    superstitione    omni   referserunt.     Atque    hic 

locus  a  Zenone  tractatus  post  a  Cleanthe  et  Chrysippo 

pluribus  verbis  explicatus  est.     Nam  cum^  vetus  haec 

opinio    Graeciam  opplevisset,^   exsectum   Caelum  a 

fiho    Saturno,    vinctum    autem    Saturnum   ipsum    a 

64  filio  love,  physica  ratio  non  inelegans  inclusa  est  in 

impias  fabulas.  Caelcstem  enim  altissimam  aetheriam- 

que  naturam,  id  est  igneam,  quae  per  sese  omnia 

gigneret,  vacare  voluerunt  ea  parte  corporis  quae 

coniunctione  alterius  egeret  ad  procreandum.    XXV. 

Saturnum  autem  eum  esse  voluerunt  qui  cursum  et 

conversionem   spatiorum   ac  temporum  contineret ; 

qui  deus  Graece  id  ipsum  nomen  habet  :  Kpovos  enim 

dicitur,  qui  est  idem  x/^oi^os,  id  est  spatium  temporis. 

Saturnus    autem    est    appellatus    quod    saturaretur 

annis  ;  ex  se  enim  natos  comesse  fmgitur  sohtus,  quia 

consumit  aetas  temporum  spatia  annisque  praeteritis 

insaturabihter  expletur  ;    vinctus  autem  a  love  ne 

inmoderatos  cursus  haberet  atque  ut  eum  siderum 

vinchs  alhgaret.     Sed  ipse  luppiter — id  est  iuvans 

pater,  quem  conversis  casibus  appellamus  a  iuvando 

lovem,    a    poetis    '  pater    divomque   hominumque  * 

dicitur,  a  maioribus  autem  nostris  optumus  maxumus, 

et  quidem  ante  optumus,  id  est  beneficentissimus, 

quam   maxumus    quia   maius    est   certeque   gratius 

prodesse     omnibus     quam     opes     magnas     habere 

^  cum  A  corr.  :  om.  cett. 
*  opplevisset  J,  B  :  op])levil  dct.,  opplevit  esse  Heindorf. 

"  i.e.t  Uraiius. 
184 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxiv.— xxv. 

in  human  form  have  furnished  the  poets  with  legends  or  pereoni- 
and  have  filled  man's  hfe  with  superstitions  of  all  Jf  naturr 
sorts.  This  subject  was  handled  by  Zeno  and  was  C^^is . 
later  explained  more  fully  by  Cleanthes  and  Chrys-  mosrof  the 
ippus.  For  example,  an  ancient  belief  prevailed  ""'^''iiofjH!^ 
throughout  Greece  that  Caelus  ^  was  mutilated  by  his 
son  Saturn,  and  Saturn  himself  thrown  into  bondage 
64  by  his  son  Jove  :  now  these  immoral  fables  enshrined 
a  decidedly  clever  scientific  theory.  Their  meaning 
was  that  the  highest  element  of  celestial  ether  or  fire, 
which  by  itself  generates  all  tliings,  is  devoid  of  that 
bodily  part  which  requires  union  with  another  for  the 
work  of  procreation.  XXV.  By  Saturn  again  they 
denoted  that  being  who  maintains  the  course  and 
revolution  of  seasons  and  periods  of  time,  the  deity 
actually  so  designated  in  Greek,  for  Saturns  Greek 
name  is  Kronos,  which  is  the  same  as  chro^ios,  a  space 
of  time.  The  Latin  designation  '  Saturn  '  on  the 
other  hand  is  due  to  the  fact  that  he  is  *  saturated  ' 
or  *  satiated  with  years  '  (afi?ci)  ;  the  fable  is  that  he 
was  in  the  habit  of  devouring  his  sons — meaning  that 
Time  devours  the  ages  and  gorges  himself  insatiably 
with  the  years  that  are  past.  Saturn  was  bound  by 
Jove  in  order  that  Time's  courses  might  not  be  un- 
limited,  and  that  Jove  might  fetter  him  by  the  bonds 
of  the  stars.  But  Jupiter  himself — the  name  means 
'  the  helping  father,'  whom  with  a  change  of  inflexion 
we  style  Jove,  from  iuvare  '  to  help  '  ;  the  poets  call 
him  '  father  of  gods  and  men,'  and  our  ancestors  en- 
titled  him  '  best  and  greatest,'  putting  the  title  '  best,' 
that  is  most  beneficent,  before  that  of  '  greatest,' 
because  universal  beneficence  is  greater,  or  at  least 
more  k)vable,  than  the  possession  of  great  wealth — 

185 


CICERO 

66  —  hunc  igitur  Ennius  ut  supra  dixi  nuncupat  ita 
dicens  : 

aspice  hoc  sublime  candens  quem  invocant  omnes  lovem, 
planius  quam  aho  loco  idem  : 

cui^  quod  in  me  est  exsecrabor  hoc  quod  lucet  quicquid  est ; 
hunc  etiam  augures  nostri,  cum  dicunt  '  love  fulgente, 
tonante  ' :  dicunt  enim  '  caelo  fulgente  et^  tonante.' 
Euripides  autem  ut  multa  praeclare  sic  hoc  breviter  : 

vides  sublime  fusum  inmoderatum  aethera, 
qui  terram  tenero  circumiectu  amplectitur  : 
hunc  summum  habeto  divum,  hunc  perhibeto  lovem. 

66  XXVI.  "  Aer  autem,  ut  Stoici  disputant,  interiec- 
tus  inter  mare  et  caelum  lunonis  nomine  consecratur, 
quae  est  soror  et  coniunx  lovis,  quod  ei^  simihtudo 
est  aetheris  et  cum  eo  summa  coniunctio  ;  effemi- 
narunt  autem  eum  lunonique  tribuerunt  quod  nihil 
est  eo  molHus.  (Sed  lunonem  a  iuvando  credo 
nominatam.)  Aqua  restabat  et  terra,  ut  essent  ex 
fabuHs  tria  regna  divisa.  Datum  est  igitur  Neptuno 
alterum,*  lovis  ut  volunt^  fratri,  maritimum  omne 
regnum,  nomenque  productum  ut  Portunus  a  portu 
sic  Neptunus  a  nando  paulum  primis  htteris  im- 
mutatis.  Terrena  autem  vis  omnis  atque  natura 
Diti  patri  dedicata  est  (qui  Dives,  ut  apud  Graecos 
HXovTOJu),  quia  et  recidunt  omnia  in  terras  et  oriuntur 

^  qui  deft.  *  et  om.  dett. 

'  ei  Prohus  :  et  mss..^  ei  et  lleindorf. 

*  alteri  A  corr.        ^  volumus  pr.  A,  pr.  B. 

"  §4.  " 

*  Euripides  fr.  386 : 

opas  Tov  v^pov  T6pd'  &7r€ipov  aWipa 

Kal  yrjv  iripL^  ^x^ovd'   vypacs  iv  d^/cdXai»' 

TOvTov  v6fu^€  Zrjvat  t6v8'  rjyov  de^v. 

*  Hera. 
186 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxv.— xxvi. 

B5  it  is  he  then  who  is  addressed  by  Ennius  in  tlie  follow- 
ing  terms,  as  I  said  before  "  : 

Behold  this  dazzling  vault  of  heaven,  which  all  mankind 
as  Jove  invoke — 

more  explicitly  than  in  another  passage  of  the  same 
poet  : 

Now  by  whatever  pow'r  it  be  that  sheds 
This  Hght  of  day,  rll  lay  my  curse  upon  him  ! 

It  is  he  also  whom  our  augm-s  mean  by  their  formula 

*  should  Jove  hghten  and  thunder,'  meaning  *  should 
the  sky  hghten  and  thunder.'  Euripides  among  many 
fine  passages  has  this  brief  invocation  : 

Thou  seest  the  boundless  aether's  spreading  vault, 
Whose  soft  embrace  encompasseth  the  earth  : 
This  deem  thou  god  of  gods,  the  supreme  Jove.^ 

56  XXVI.  "  The  air,  lying  between  the  sea  and  sky,  is 
according  to  the  Stoic  theory  deified  under  the  name 
belonging  to  Juno,<'  sister  and  wife  of  Jove,  because 
it  resembles  and  is  closely  connected  A\1th  the 
aether  ;  they  made  it  female  and  assigned  it  to  Juno 
because  of  its  extreme  softness.  (The  name  of  Juno 
however  I  believe  to  be  derived  from  iuvare  '  to  help  '). 
There  remained  water  and  earth,  to  complete  the 
fabled  partition  of  the  three  kingdoms.  Accordingly 
the  second  kingdom,  the  entire  realm  of  the  sea,  was 
assigned  to  Neptune,  Jove's  brother  as  they  hold  ; 
his  name  is  derived  from  Jiare  '  to  swim,'  ^vith  a  shght 
alteration  of  the  earher  letters  and  wdth  the  suffix 
seen  in  Portunus  (the  harbour  god),  derived  from 
portus  *  a  harbour.'  The  entire  bulk  and  substance  of 
the  earth  was  dedicated  to  father  Dis  (that  is,  Dives, 

*  the  rich,'  and  so  in  Greek  Plouto/i),  because  all  things 
fall  back  into  the  earth  and  also  arise  from  the  earth. 

187 


CICERO 

e  terris.  Cui  nuptam  dicunt^  Proserpinam  (quod 
Graecorum  nomen  est,  ea  enim  est  quae  Hepcrcipnvr] 
Graece  nominatur)  —  quam  frugum  semen  esse 
volunt    absconditamque    quaeri    a    matre    fingunt. 

67  Materautem  est  a  gerendis  frugibus  Ceres  (tamquam 
Geres,  casuque  prima  littera  itidem  immutata 
ut  a  Graecis  ;  nam  ab  illis  quoque  A^ya^Tr^p  quasi 
yrj  fi-jrqp  nominata  est).  lam  qui  magna  verteret 
Mavors,  Minerva  autem  quae  vel  minueret  vel 
minaretur.  XXVII.  Cumque  in  omnibus  rebus  vim 
haberent  maxumam  prima  et  extrema,  principem 
in  sacrificando  lanum  esse  voluerunt,  quod  ab  eundo 
nomen  est  ductum,  ex  quo  transitiones  perviae 
iani  foresque  in  liminibus  profanarum  aedium  ianuae 
nominantur.  lam^  Vestae  nomen  a  Graecis  ;  ea 
est  enim  quae  ab  illis  'Ea-rla  dicitur ;  vis  autem 
eius  ad  aras  et  focos  pertinet,  itaque  in  ea  dea, 
quod  est  rerum  custos  intumarum,  omnis  et  precatio 

68  et  sacrificatio  extrema  est.  Nec  longe  absunt  ab 
hac  vi  di^  Penates  sive  a  penu  ducto  nomine  (est 
enim  omne  quo  vescuntur  homines  penus)  sive  ab 
eo  quod  penitus  insident,  ex  quo  etiam  penetrales 
a  poetis  vocantur.  lam  Apollinis  nomen  est  Grae- 
cum,  quem  solem  esse  volunt,  Dianam  autem  et 
lunam  eandem  esse  putant,  cum*  sol  dictus  sit  vel 
quia  solus  ex  omnibus  sideribus  est  tantus  vel  quia 
cum  est  exortus  obscuratis  omnibus  solus  apparet, 

^  nuptam  dicunt  om.  A,  B.         ^  iam  Wolfflein:   nam. 

^  vi  di ;  divi  B  corr. ^  cumque  Mnyor. 

"  Euripides,  Phaethon,  fr.  775: 

u)  KaXKi<peyyes  "HXi',    ios  /x    dvcoXecras 
Kal  t6vo'    'AttoWu}  5'  iv  (ipoTols  o-'  dpdCis  KaXei 
ScTis  rd  aiyCjvT'   ovoixaT    oloe  dat/xSvuv. 
But  Plato,  Cratylus,  405  'AirdWuv  =  d/j.a  tto5Cv  .  .  .  ttjv  ofxov 
■tr6\rj(TLv  Kai  irepl  t6v  ovpavbv  .  .  .  /cai  irepl  t^v  iv  ry  ipS^  dp/xoviav. 
188 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxvi.— xxvii. 

He  is  said  to  have  married  Proserpina  (really  a  Greek 
name,  for  she  is  the  same  as  the  goddess  called 
Persephone  in  Greek) — they  think  that  she  represents 
the  seed  of  corn,  and  fable  that  she  was  hidden  away, 

67  and  sought  for  by  her  mother.  The  mother  is  Ceres, 
a  corruption  of  *  Geres,'  from  gero,  because  she  hears 
the  crops  ;  the  same  accidental  change  of  the  first 
letter  is  also  seen  in  her  Greek  name  Demeterj  a  cor- 
ruption  of  ^e  meter  ('  mother  earth  ').  Mavors  again 
is  from  magna  vertere,  '  the  overturner  of  the  great,' 
while  Minerva  is  either  *  she  who  minishes  '  or  *  she 
who  is  minatory.'  XXVII.  Also,  as  the  beginning 
and  the  end  are  the  most  important  parts  of  all 
aifairs,  they  held  that  Janus  is  the  leader  in  a  sacrifice, 
the  name  being  derived  from  ire  ('  to  go  '),  hence  the 
nsimes  jani  for  archways  and  januae  for  the  front  doors 
of  secular  buildings.  Again,  the  name  Vesta  comes 
from  the  Greeks,  for  she  is  the  goddess  whom  they 
call  Hestia.  Her  power  extends  over  altars  and 
hearths,  and  therefore  all  prayers  and  all  sacrifices 
end  with  this  goddess,  because  she  is  the  guardian  of 

68  the  innermost  things.  Closely  related  to  this  function 
are  the  Penates  or  household  gods,  a  name  derived 
either  from  penus,  which  means  a  store  of  human  food 
of  any  kind,  or  from  the  fact  that  they  residc  penitus, 
in  the  recesses  of  the  house,  owing  to  which  they  are 
also  called  penetrales  by  the  poets.  The  name  ApoUo 
again  is  Greek ;  they  say  that  he  is  the  sun,<*  and 
Diana  they  identify  ^vith  the  moon  ;  the  word  sol 
being  from  solus,  either  because  the  sun  '  alone  '  of  all 
the  heavenly  bodies  is  of  that  magnitude,  or  because 
when  the  sun  rises  all  the  stars  are  dimmed  and  it 
*  alone  '  is  visible  ;    while  the  name  luna  is  derived 

H  189 


CICERO 

Luna  a  lucendo  nominata  sit^ ;  eadem  est  enim 
Lucina,  itaque,  ut  apud  Graecos  Dianam  eamque 
Luciferam,  sic  apud  nostros  lunonem  Lucinam 
in  pariendo  invocant.  Quae  eadem  Diana  Omni- 
vaga  dicitur  non  a   venando  sed  quod   in  septem 

69  numeratur  tamquam  vagantibus.  Diana^  dicta  quia 
noctu  quasi  diem  efficeret.  Adhibetur  autem  ad 
partus  quod  ii  maturescunt  aut  septem  non  numquam 
aut  ut  plerumque  novem  lunae  cursibus,  qui  quia 
mensa  spatia  conficiunt  menses  nominantur ;  con- 
cinneque  ut  multa  Timaeus,  qui  cum  in  historia  di- 
xisset  qua  nocte  natus  Alexander  esset  eadem  Dianae 
Ephesiae  templum  deflagravisse,  adiunxit  minime  id 
esse  mirandum,  quod  Diana  cum  in  partu  Olympia- 
dis  adesse  voluisset  afuisset  domo.  Quae  autem  dea 
ad  res  omnes  veniret  Venerem  nostri  nominaverunt, 
atque'  ex  ea  potius  venustas  quam  Venus  ex  venu- 
state. 

70  XXVIII.  "  Videtisne  igitur  ut   a   physicis    rebus 

bene  atque  utihter  inventis  tracta  ratio  sit  ad  com- 

menticios   et   fictos   deos  ?    quae   res   genuit   falsas 

opiniones   erroresque   turbulentos    et   superstitiones 

paene   aniles.     Et   formae    enim   nobis    deorum    et 

aetates    et   vestitus   ornatusque    noti   sunt,   genera 

praeterea  coniugia  cognationes,  omniaque  traducta 

ad  simihtudinem  inbecilHtatis    humanae.     Nam    et 

perturbatis    animis    inducuntur  :     accepimus*    enim 

deorum    cupiditates    aegritudines    iracundias  ;    nec 

^  sit:  est  Mayor. 

*  <sed>  Diana  Mayor.  ^  estque  Mayor, 

*  accepimus  deit. :  accipimus  Ay  B. 

190 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxvii.— xxviii. 

from  liicere  '  to  shine  '  ;  for  it  is  the  same  word  as 
Lumia,  and  therefore  in  our  country  Juno  Lucina  is 
invoked  in  childbirth,  as  is  Diana  in  her  manifesta- 
tion  as  Lucifera  (the  Hght-bringer)  among  the  Greeks. 
She  is  also  called  Diana  Omnivaga  (mde-wandering), 
not  from  her  hunting,  but  because  she  is  counted  one 

59  of  the  seven  planets  or  *  wanderers  '  (yagari).  She 
was  called  Diana  because  she  made  a  sort  of  dai/  in 
the  night-time.  She  is  invoked  to  assist  at  the  birth 
of  children,  because  the  period  of  gestation  is  either 
occasionally  seven,  or  more  usually  nine,  lunar  revolu- 
tions,  and  these  are  called  menses  (months),  because 
they  cover  measured  (mensa)  spaces.  Timaeus  in  his 
history  with  his  usual  aptness  adds  to  his  account  of 
the  burning  of  the  temple  of  Diana  of  Ephesus  on  the 
night  on  which  Alexander  was  born  the  remark  that 
this  need  cause  no  surprise,  since  Diana  was  away 
from  home,  -vvishing  to  be  present  when  Olympias  was 
brought  to  bed.  Venus  was  so  named  by  our  country- 
men  as  the  goddess  who  '  comes  '  (venire)  to  all  things  ; 
her  name  is  not  derived  from  the  word  venustas 
(beauty)  but  rather  venustas  from  it. 

ro  XXVIII.  **  Do  you  see  therefore  howfrom  a true  and 
valuable  philosophy  of  nature  has  been  evolved  this 
imaginary  and  fanciful  pantheon  ?  The  perversion 
has  been  a  fruitful  source  of  false  beUefs,  crazy  errors 
and  superstitions  hardly  above  the  level  of  old  wives' 
tales.  We  know  what  the  gods  look  hke  and  how  old 
they  are,  their  dress  and  their  equipment,  and  also 
their  genealogies,  marriages  and  relationships,  and 
all  about  them  is  distorted  into  the  likeness  of  human 
frailty.  They  are  actually  represented  as  hable  to 
passions  and  emotions — we  hear  of  their  being  in  love, 
sorrowful,  angry  ;  according  to  the  myths  they  even 

191 


CICERO 

vero  ut  fabulae  ferunt  bellis  proeliisque  caruerunt, 
nec  solum  ut  apud  Homerum  cum  duo  exercitus 
contrarios  alii  dei  ex  alia  parte  defenderent,  sed 
etiam  ut  cum  Titanis  ut  cum  Gigantibus  sua  propria 
bella  gesserunt.  Haec  et  dicuntur  et  credun- 
tur  stultissime  et  plena  sunt  futtilitatis  summaeque 

71  le^-itatis.  Sed  tamen  his  fabulis  spretis  ac  repudiatis 
deus  pertinens  per  naturam  cuiusque  rei.  per  terras 
Ceres  per  maria  Neptunus  alii  per  alia,  poterunt 
intellegi  qui  qualesque  sint,  quoque  eos  nomine  con- 
suetudo  nuncupaverit,  hoc  eos^  et  venerari  et  colere 
debemus.  Cultus  autem  deorum  est  optimus  idem- 
que  castissimus  atque  sanctissimus  plenissimusque 
pietatis  ut  eos  semper  pura  integra  incorrupta  et 
mente  et  voce  veneremur.  Non  enim  philosophi 
solum  verum  etiam  maiores  nostri  superstitionem  a 

72  religione  separaverunt.  Nam  qui  totos  dies  preca- 
bantur  et  immolabant  ut  sibi  sui  hberi  superstites 
essent  superstitiosi  sunt  appellati,  quod  nomen  patuit 
postea  latius  ;  qui  autem  omnia  quae  ad  cultum 
deorum  pertinerent  dihgenter  retractarent  et  tam- 
quam  relegerent,  <hi>2  sunt  dicti  rehgiosi  ex  re- 
legendoj  ut  elegantes  ex  ehgendo  ex  dihgendo  di- 
hgentes  ex  intellegendo  intellegentes  ;  his  enim  in 
verbis  omnibus  inest  vis  legendi  eadem  quae  in 
rehgioso.  Ita  factum  est  in  superstitioso  et  rehgioso 
alterum  vitii  nomen  alterum  laudis.  Ac  mihi  videor 
satis  et  esse  deos  et  quales  essent  ostendisse. 

^  hoc  eos  Keil :  hos  deos.  "  add,  Nonius. 

"  Scholars  are  divided  as   to   whether  this  etymology   is 
correct  or  whether  religio  is  connected  with  ligare,  as  Cicero 
himself  suggests  elsewhere  by  his  phrases  religione  obstrin- 
gere^  impedire,  solvi. 
192 


DE  NATURA  DEORUiM,  II.  xxviii. 

engage  in  wars  and  battles,  and  that  not  only  when 
as  in  Homer  two  arniies  are  contending  and  the  gods 
take  sides  and  intervene  on  their  behalf,  but  they 
actually  fought  wars  of  their  own,  for  instance  with 
the  Titans  and  with  the  Giants.  These  stories  and 
these  behefs  are  utterly  foohsh  ;    they  are  stuffed 

fl  with  nonsense  and  absurdity  of  all  sorts.  But  though  True 
repudiating  these  myths  with  contempt,  we  shall  ^^^'K^oo- 
nevertheless  be  able  to  understand  the  personality 
and  the  nature  of  the  divinities  pervading  the  sub- 
stance  of  the  several  elements,  Ceres  permeating 
earth,  Neptune  the  sea,  and  so  on  ;  and  it  is  our  duty 
to  revere  and  worship  these  gods  under  the  names 
which  custom  has  bestowed  upon  them.  But  the  best 
and  also  the  purest,  hoHest  and  most  pious  way  of 
worshipping  the  gods  is  ever  to  venerate  them  Mith 
purity,  sincerity  and  innocence  both  of  thought  and 
of  speech.  For  religion  has  been  distinguished  from 
superstition  not  only  by  philosophers  but  by  our 

J2  ancestors.  Persons  who  spent  whole  days  in  prayer 
and  sacrifice  to  ensure  that  their  children  should  out- 
hve  them  were  termed  *  superstitious  '  (from  supersies, 
a  survivor),  and  the  word  later  acquired  a  wider  appli- 
cation.  Those  on  the  other  hand  who  carefully  re- 
viewed  and  so  to  speak  retraced  all  the  lore  of  ritual 
were  called  '  religious  '  from  relegere  (to  retrace  or 
re-read),  Hke  '  elegant '  from  eligere  (to  select),  *  dili- 
gent  '  from  diligere  (to  care  for).  *  intelligent  '  from 
iniellegere  (to  understand)  ;  for  all  these  words  con- 
tain  the  same  sense  of  '  picking  out  '  (legere)  that 
is  present  in  '  reHgious.'  ^  Hence  '  superstitious  '  and 
'  reHgious  '  came  to  be  terms  of  censure  and  approval 
respectively.  I  think  that  I  have  said  enough  to 
prove  the  existence  of  the  gods  and  their  nature. 

193 


CICERO 

73  XXIX.  "  Proximum  est  ut  doceam  deorum  pro- 
videntia  mundum  administrari.  Magnus  sane  locus 
est^  et  a  vestris,  Cotta,  vexatus,  ac  nimirum  vobis- 
cum  omne  certamen  est.  Nam  vobis,  Vellei,  minus 
notum  est  quem  ad  modum  quidque  dicatur  ;  vestra 
enim  solum  legitis,  vestra  amatis,  ceteros  causa 
incognita  condemnatis.  Velut  a  te  ipso  hesterno  die 
dictum  est  anum  fatidicam  Trpovotav  a  Stoicis  induci, 
id  est  providentiam ;  quod  eo  errore  dixisti  quia 
existumas  ab  iis  pro\ddentiam  fingi  quasi  quandam 
deam  singularem  quae  mundum  omnem  gubernet  et 

74  regat.  Sed  id  praecise  dicitur :  ut,  si  quis  dicat 
Atheniensium  rem  pubUcam  consiHo  regi,  desit 
illud  *  Areopagi,^ '  sic  cum  dicimus  providentia 
mundum  administrari  deesse  arbitrato  *  deorum/ 
plene  autem  et  perfecte  sic  dici  existimato,  pro- 
videntia  deorum  mundum  administrari.  Ita  salem 
istum,  quo  caret  vestra  natio,  in  inridendis  nobis 
noHtote  consumere,  et  mehercle  si  me  audiatis 
ne  experiamini  quidem  ;  non  decet,  non  datum  est, 
non  potestis.  Nec  vero  hoc  in  te  unum^  convenit, 
moribus  domesticis  ac  nostrorum  hominum  urbanitate 
Hmatum,*  sed  cum  in  reHquos  vestros  tum  in  eum 
maxime  qui  ista  peperit,  hominem  sine  arte  sine  Ht- 
teris,  insultantem  in  omnes,  sine  acumine  uUo  sine 

76  auctoritate   sine   lepore.        XXX.   Dico   igitur    pro- 

*  est  om.  dett. 
*  Ariopagi  A  corr.  t   Arpagi  cett.,  Ariipagi  Plasherg. 
^  unum  Manutius  (post  convenit  Kindervater)  :  uno. 
*  Hmatum  Manutius  :  Hmato. 

«  See  i.  18,  20,  22.  The  language  here  and  at  iii.  18 
impHes  that  the  work  was  planned  to  fah  into  three  separate 
conversations  held  on  three  sticcessive  days:  an  indicalion 
that  it  lacks  the  author's  final  revision. 

194 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxix.— xxx. 

73  XXIX.  "  Next  I  have  to  show  that  the  world  is   ii.  Pro- 
governed  by  di^ine  providence.     This  is  of  course  a  givernment 
vast  topic  ;   the  doctrine  is  hotly  contested  by  your  of  t^^yorid 
school,  Cotta,  and  it  is  they  no  doubt  that  are  my  intro- 
chief  adversaries  here.     As  for  you  and  your  friends,  Ep"j^irean 
Velleius,  you  scarcely  understand  the  vocabulary  of  sneer.sare 
the  subject  ;  for  you  only  read  your  own  ^^Titings,  and  fgnorance.'" 
are  so  enamoured  of  them  that  you  pass  judgement 
against  all  the  other  schools  without  giving  them  a 
hearing.  For  instance,  you  yourself  told  us  yesterday'* 

that  the  Stoics  present  Pronoia  or  providence  in  the 
guise  of  an  old  hag  of  a  fortune-teller  ;  this  was  due 
to  your  mistaken  notion  that  they  imagine  providence 
as  a  kind  of  special  deity  who  rules  and  governs  the 
universe.     But  as  a  matter  of  fact  '  providence  '  is  an 

74  elhptical  expression ;  when  one  says  '  the  Athenian 
state  is  ruled  by  the  council,'  the  words  *  of  the 
Areopagus  '  are  omitted  :  so  when  we  speak  of  the 
world  as  governed  by  providence,  you  must  under- 
stand  the  words  '  of  the  gods  '  and  must  conceive  that 
the  full  and  complete  statement  would  be  '  the  world 
is  governed  by  the  providence  of  the  gods.'  So  do  not 
you  and  your  friends  waste  your  wit  on  making  fun 
of  us, — your  tribe  is  none  too  well  off  for  that  com- 
modity.  Indeed  if  your  school  would  take  my  advice 
you  would  give  up  all  attempts  at  humour  ;  it  sits  ill 
upon  you,  for  it  is  not  your  forte  and  you  can't  bring 
it  off.  This  does  not,  it  is  true,  apply  to  you  in  par- 
ticular, — y ou  have  the  poHshed  manners  of  your  family 
and  the  urbanity  of  a  Roman  ;  but  it  does  apply  to 
all  the  rest  of  you,  and  especially  to  the  parent  of  the 
system,  an  uncultivated,  ilHterate  person,  who  tilts 
at  everybody  and  is  entirely  devoid  of  penetration, 

75  authority  or  chann.    XXX.  I  therefore  declare  that 

195 


CICERO 

videntia  deorum  mundum  et  omnes  mundi  partes  et 
initio  constitutas  esse  et  omni  tempore  administrari  ; 
eamque  disputationem  tris  in  partes  nostri  fere 
di^idunt,  quarum  prima  pars  est  quae  ducitur  ab  ea 
ratione  quae  docet  esse  deos  ;  quo  concesso  con- 
fitendum  est  eorum  consilio  mundum  administrari. 
Secunda  est  autem  quae  docet  omnes  res  subiectas 
esse  naturae  sentienti  ab  eaque  omnia  pulcherrume 
geri  ;  quo  constituto  sequitur  ab  animantibus 
principiis  ea  esse  generata.^  Tertius  est  locus 
qui  ducitur  ex  admiratione  rerum  caelestium  atque 
terrestrium. 

76  "  Primum  igitur  aut  negandum  est  esse  deos,  quod 
et  Democritus  simulacra  et  Epicurus  imagines  indu- 
cens  quodam  pacto  negat,  aut  qui  deos  esse  concedant 
iis  fatendum  est  eos  aliquid  agere  idque  praeclarum  ; 
nihil  est  autem  praeclarius  mundi  administratione  ; 
deorum  igitur  consilio  administratur.  Quod  si  aUter 
est,  ahquid  profecto  sit  necesse  est  melius  et  maiore 
vi  praeditum  quam  deus,  quale  id  cumque  est,  sive 
inanima  natura  sive  necessitas  vi  magna  incitata  haec 

77  pulcherrima  opera  efficiens  quae  videmus  ;  non  est 
igitur  natura  deorum  praepotens  neque  excellens,  si- 
quidem  ea  subiecta  est  ei  vel  necessitati  vel  naturae 
qua  caelum  maria  terrae  regantur.  Nihil  est  autem 
praestantius  deo ;  ab  eo  igitur  mundum  necesse  est 
regi ;  nulh  igitur  est  naturae  oboediens  aut  subiectus 
deus,  omnem  ergo  regit  ipse  naturam.     Etenim  si 

*  ea  esse  generata  dett. :  eam  e.  generatam  A^  B,  omnia  e. 
generata  Heindorf^  eum  e.  generatum  Walker, 

196 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxx. 

the  world  and  all  its  parts  were  set  in  order  at  the  Division  of 
beginning  and  have  been  governed  for  all  time  by  ^  ^*"  ^^ 
di\*ine  providence  :  a  thesis  which  our  school  usually 
divides  into  three  sections.  The  first  is  based  on  the 
argument  proving  that  the  gods  exist  ;  if  this  be 
granted,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  world  is 
governed  by  their  wisdom.  The  second  proves  that 
all  things  are  under  the  sway  of  sentient  nature,  and 
that  by  it  the  universe  is  carried  on  in  the  most  beauti- 
ful  manner  ;  and  this  proved,  it  follows  that  the 
universe  was  generated  from  hving  first  causes.  The 
third  topic  is  the  argument  from  the  wonder  that  we 
feel  at  the  marvel  of  creation,  celestial  and  terrestrial. 

76  "  In  the  first  place  therefore  one  must  either  deny  (^  Provi- 
the  existence  of  the  gods,  which  in  a  manner  is  done  dentiai 
by  Democritus  when  he  represents  them  as  *  appari-  fnfprred 
tions  '  and  by  Epicurus  with  his  '  images  ' ;  or  any-  J-vkie^^ 
body  who  admits  that  the  gods  exist  must  allow  them  wisdom  and 
activity,  and  activity  of  the  most  distinguished  sort ;  p^^®*"' 
now  nothinff  can  be  more   distino^uished  than  the 
government  of  the  world  ;    therefore  the  world  is 
governed  by  the  wisdom  of  the  gods.     If  this  is  not 

so,  there  must  clearly  be  something  better  and  more 
powerful  than  god,  be  it  what  it  may,  whether  inani- 
mate  nature  or  necessity  speeding  on  with  mighty 
force  to  create  the  supremely  beautiful  objects  that 

77  we  see  ;  in  that  case  the  nature  of  the  gods  is  not 
superior  to  all  else  in  power,  inasmuch  as  it  is  subject 
to  a  necessity  or  nature  that  rules  the  sky,  sea  and 
land.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  nothing  exists  that  is 
superior  to  god  ;  it  follows  therefore  that  the  world  is 
ruled  by  him  ;  therefore  god  is  not  obedient  or  sub- 
ject  to  any  form  of  nature,  and  therefore  he  himself 
rules  all  nature.    In  fact  if  we  concede  divine  intelh- 

197 


CICERO 

concedimus  intellegentes  esse  deos,  concedimus  etiam 
providentes  et  rerum  quidem  maxumarum.  Ergo 
utrum  ignorant  quae  res  maxumae  sint  quoque  eae 
modo  tractandae  et  tuendae,  an  vim  non  habent  qua 
tantas  res  sustineant  et  gerant  ?  At  et  ignoratio 
rerum  aliena  naturae  deorum  est  et  sustinendi 
muneris  propter  inbecillitatem  difficultas  minime 
cadit  in  maiestatem  deorum.  Ex  quo  efficitur  id 
quod  volumus,  deorum  providentia  mundum  admini- 

78  strari.  XXXI.  Atqui  necesse  est  cum  sint  di  (si 
modo  sunt,  ut  profecto  sunt)  animantis  esse,  nec 
solum  animantis  sed  etiam  rationis  compotes  inter 
seque  quasi  ci\ili  conciliatione  et  societate  coniunctos, 
unum  mundum  ut  communem  rem  publicam  atque 

79  urbem  aliquam  regentis.  Sequitur  ut  eadem  sit  in 
iis  quae  humano  in  genere  ratio,  eadem  veritas 
utrobique  sit  eademque  lex,  quae  est  recti  prae- 
ceptio  pravique  depulsio.  Ex  quo  intellegitur  pru- 
dentiam  quoque  et  mentem  a  deis  ad  homines  per- 
venisse  ;  ob  eamque  causam  maiorum  institutis  Mens 
Fides  Virtus  Concordia  consecratae  et  publice  dedi- 
catae  sunt,  quae  qui  convenit  penes  deos  esse  negare 
cum  earum^  augusta  et  sancta  simulacra  veneremur  ? 
Quodsi  inest  in  hominum  genere  mens  fides  virtus 
concordia,  unde  haec  in  terram  nisi  ab  superis  defluere 
potuerunt  ?  Cumque  sint  in  nobis  consiUum  ratio 
prudentia,  necesse  est  deos  haec  ipsa  habere  maiora, 
nec  habere  solum  sed  etiam  iis  uti  in  maxumis  et 

^  earum  ed.  :  eorum. 
198 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxx.— xxxi. 

gence,  we  concede  also  divine  providence,  and  provi- 
dence  exercised  in  things  of  the  highest  moment. 
Are  then  the  gods  ignorant  what  things  are  of  the 
highest  moment  and  how  these  are  to  be  directed  and 
u}:)held,  or  do  they  lack  the  strength  to  undertake 
and  to  perform  duties  so  vast  ?  But  ignorance  is 
foreign  to  the  divine  nature,  and  weakness,  with  a 
consequent  incapacity  to  perform  one's  office,  in  no 
way  suits  with  the  divine  majesty.  This  proves  our 
thesis  that  the  world  is  governed  by  divine  providence. 

78  XXXI.  And  yet  from  the  fact  of  the  gods'  existence 
(assuming  that  they  exist,  as  they  certainly  do)  it 
necessarily  follows  that  they  are  animate  beings,  and 
not  only  animate  but  possessed  of  reason  and  united 
togetlier  in  a  sort  of  social  community  or  fellowship, 
ruhng  the  one  world  as  a  united  commonwealth  or 

79  state.  It  follows  that  they  possess  the  same  faculty 
of  reason  as  the  human  race,  and  that  both  have 
the  same  apprehension  of  truth  and  the  same  law 
enjoining  what  is  right  and  rejecting  what  is 
wrong.  Hence  we  see  that  wisdom  and  intelU- 
gence  also  have  been  derived  by  men  from  the 
gods ;  and  this  explains  why  it  was  the  practice  of 
our  ancestors  to  deify  Mind,  Faith,  Virtue  and  Con- 
cord,  and  to  set  up  temples  to  them  at  the  pubhc 
charge,  and  how  can  we  consistently  deny  that  they 
exist  with  the  gods,  when  we  worship  their  majestic 
and  holy  images  ?  And  if  mankind  possesses  intelh- 
gence,  faith,  virtue  and  concord,  whence  can  these 
things  have  flowed  down  upon  the  earth  if  not  from 
the  powers  above  ?  Also  since  we  possess  wisdom, 
reason  and  prudence,  the  gods  must  needs  possess 
them  too  in  greater  perfection,  and  not  possess  them 
merely  but  also  exercise  them  upon  matters  of  the 

199 


CICERO 

80  optumis  rebus  ;  nihil  autem  nec  maius  nec  melius 
mundo  ;  necesse  est  ergo  eum  deorum  consilio  et 
pro\identia  administrari.  Postremo  cum  satis  do- 
cuerimus  hos  esse  deos  quorum  insignem  vim  et 
inlustrem  faciem  videremus,  solem  dico  et  lunam  et 
vagas  stellas  et  inerrantes  et  caelum  et  mundum 
ipsum  et  earum  rerum  vim  quae  inessent  in  omni 
mundo  cum  magno  usu  et  commoditate  generis 
humani,  efRcitur  omnia  regi  divina  mente  atque 
prudentia.  Ac  de  prima  quidem  parte  satis  dictum 
est. 

81  XXXII.  "  Sequitur  ut  doceam  omnia  subiecta 
esse  naturae  eaque  ab  ea  pulcherrime  geri.^  Sed  quid 
sit  ipsa  natura  expHcandum  est  ante  breviter,  quo 
facihus  id  quod  docere  volumus  intellegi  possit. 
Namque  ahi  naturam  esse  censent  vim  quandam  sine 
ratione  cientem  motus  in  corporibus  necessarios,  ahi 
autem  \im  participem  rationis  atque  ordinis  tam- 
quam  via  progredientem  declarantemque  quid 
cuiusque  rei  causa  efficiat  quid  sequatur,  cuius  soUer- 
tiam  nulla  ars  nuha  manus  nemo  opifex  consequi 
possit  imitando  ;  seminis  enim  vim  esse  tantam  ut  id, 
quamquam  sit  perexiguum,  tamen  si  inciderit  in 
concipientem  conprendentemque  naturam  nanctum- 
que  sit  materiam  qua  ah  augerique  possit,  ita  fingat 
et  efficiat  in  suo  quidque  genere,  partim  ut  tantum 
modo  per  stirpes  alantur  suas,  partim  ut  moveri 
etiam    et   sentire    et   appetere   possint   et   ex   sese 

82  simiha  sui  gignere.     Sunt  autem  qui  omnia  naturae 

^  geri  At  B  :  regi  dett, 
200 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxxi.— xxxii. 

80  greatest  magnitiide  and  value  ;  but  nothing  is  of 
greater  magnitude  and  value  than  the  universe  ;  it 
follows  therefore  that  the  universe  is  governed  by  the 
wisdom  and  pro^idence  of  the  gods.  Finally,  since 
we  have  conclusively  proved  the  divinity  of  those 
beings  whose  glorious  might  and  shining  aspect  we 
behold,  I  mean  the  sun  and  moon  and  the  planets  and 
fixed  stars,  and  the  sky  and  the  world  itself,  and  all 
that  mighty  multitude  of  objects  contained  in  all  the 
world  which  are  of  great  service  and  benefit  to  the 
human  race,  the  conclusion  is  that  all  things  are  ruled 
by  divine  intelligence  and  wisdom.  So  much  for  the 
first  di^ision  of  my  subject. 

81  XXXII.  "  Next  I  have  to  show  that  all  things  are  (-2)  Provi. 
under  the  sway  of  nature  and  are  carried  on  by  her  in  go!?eJ.nment 
the  most  excellent  manner.    But  first  I  must  briefly  infen-ed 
explain  the  meaning  of  the  term  '  nature  '  itself,  to  nature  of 
make  our  doctrine  more  easily  intelhffible.     Some  !^  worid. 

•'  .       c>  Inemeaning 

persons  denne  nature  as  a  non-rational  lorce  that  of '  nature.' 
causes  necessary  motions  in  material  bodies  ;  others 
as  a  rational  and  ordered  force,  proceeding  by  method 
and  plainly  displaying  the  means  that  she  takes  to 
produce  each  result  and  the  end  at  which  she  aims, 
and  possessed  of  a  skill  that  no  handiwork  of  artist  or 
craftsman  can  rival  or  reproduce.  For  a  seed,  they 
point  out,  has  such  potency  that,  tiny  though  it  is  in 
size,  nevertheless  if  it  falls  into  some  substance  that 
conceives  and  enfolds  it,  and  obtains  suitable  material 
to  foster  its  nurture  and  growth,  it  fashions  and 
produces  the  various  creatures  after  their  kinds, 
some  designed  merely  to  absorb  nourishment  through 
their  roots,  and  others  capable  of  motion,  sensation, 

82  appetition  and  reproduction  of  their  species.  Some 
thinkers  again  denote  by  the  term  *  nature  '  the  whole 


CICERO 

nomine  appellent,  ut  Epicurus,  qui  ita  diWdit : 
omnium  quae  sint  naturam  esse  corpora  et  inane 
quaeque  his  accidant.  Sed  nos  cum  dicimus  natura 
constare  administrarique  mundum,  non  ita  di- 
cimus  ut  glaebam  aut  fragmentum  lapidis  aut  aliquid 
eius  modi  sola^  cohaerendi  natura,  sed  ut  arborem 
ut  animal,  in  quibus  nulla  temeritas  sed  ordo  apparet 
et  artis  quaedam  simiUtudo. 

83  XXXIII.  "  Quodsi  ea  quae  a  terra  stirpibus  con- 
tinentur  arte  naturae  ^ivunt  et  vigent,  profecto 
ipsa  terra  eadem  vi  continetur  [arte  naturae]," 
quippe  quae  gravidata  semiinibus  omnia  pariat 
et  fundat  ex  sese,  stirpes  amplexa  alat  et  augeat 
ipsaque  alatur  \dcissim  a  superis  externisque  naturis. 
Eiusdemque  exspirationibus  et  aer  aUtm'  et  aether 
et  omnia  supera.  Ita  si  terra  natura  tenetur  et 
viget  eadem  ratio  in  reUquo  mundo  est ;  stirpes 
enim  terrae  inhaerent,  animantes  autem  adspi- 
ratione  aeris  sustinentur,  ipseque  aer  nobiscum 
videt  nobiscum  audit  nobiscum  sonat,  nihil  enim 
eorum  sine  eo  fieri  potest  ;  quin  etiam  movetur  no- 
biscum,  quacumque   enim  imus  quacumque^  move- 

84  mur  videtur  quasi  locum  dare  et  cedere.  Quaeque 
in  medium  locum  mundi  qui  est  infimus*  et  quae  a 
medio  in  superum  quaeque  conversione  rotunda 
circum  medium  feruntur,  ea  continentem  mundi 
efficiunt  unamque  naturam.  Et  cum  quattuor 
genera   sint   corporum,   vicissitudine    eorum   mundi 

^  sola  Walkfr :   nulla  mss.,   una  vel   nuda  Davies^  nuUa 
<ni'.i>  Heindorf.  '  om.  Davies. 

*  quacunque  B  corr.  :  qua. 

*  <in  rotundo>  infimus  Plasherg^ 

*  The  Mss.  give  "  which  possesses  no  natural  principle  of 
cohesion." 

202 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxxii.— xxxiii. 

of  existence — for  example  Epicurus,  who  divides  the 
nature  of  all  existing  things  into  atoms,  void,  and  the 
attributes  of  these.  When  we  on  the  other  hand 
speak  of  nature  as  the  sustaining  and  governing 
principle  of  the  world,  we  do  not  mean  that  the  world 
is  Uke  a  clod  of  earth  or  lump  of  stone  or  something 
else  of  that  sort,  which  possesses  only  "  the  natural 
principle  of  cohesion,  but  Hke  a  tree  or  an  animal, 
displaying  no  haphazard  structure,  but  order  and 
a  certain  semblance  of  design. 

33      XXXIII.  "  But  if  the  plants  fixed  and  rooted  in  the  '^'J^'^^ 
earth  owe  their  Hfe  and  vigour  to  nature's  art,  surely  organism 
theearthherself  must  be  sustained  by  the  same  power,  InYnTem-^^ 
inasmuch  as  M-hen  impregnated  with  seeds  she  brings  gent  natuie. 
forth  from  her  womb  all  things  in  profusion,  nourishes 
their  roots  in  her  bosom  and  causes  them  to  grow,  and 
herself  in  turn  is  nourished  by  the  upper  and  outer 
elements.     Her  exhalations  moreover  give  nourish- 
ment  to  the  air,  the  ether  and  all  the  heavenly  bodies. 
Thus  if  earth  is  upheld  and  inWgorated  by  nature, 
the  same  principle  must  hold  good  of  the  rest  of  the 
world,  for  plants  are  rooted  in  the  earth,  animals  are 
sustained  by  breathing  air,  and  the  air  itself  is  our 
partner  in  seeing,  hearing  and  uttering  sounds,  since 
none   of  these   actions   can   be    performed   without 
its  aid  ;  nay,  it  even  moves  as  we  move,  for  wherever 
we  go  or  move  our  hmbs,  it  seems  as  it  were  to  give 

84  place  and  retire  before  us.  And  those  things  which 
travel  towards  the  centre  of  the  earth  which  is  its 
lowest  point,  those  which  move  from  the  centre 
upwards,  and  those  which  rotate  in  circles  round  the 
centre,  constitute  the  one  continuous  nature  of  the 
world.  Again  the  continuum  of  the  world's  nature 
is  constituted  by  the  cychc  transmutations  of  the  four 

203 


CICERO 

continuata  natura  est.  Nam  ex  terra  aqua  ex  aqua 
oritur  aer  ex  aere  aether,  deinde  retrorsum  vicissim 
ex  aethere  aer,  inde  aqua,  ex  aqua  terra  infima. 
Sic  naturis  his  ex  quibus  omnia  constant  sursus 
deorsus   ultro   citro   commeantibus   mundi   partium 

85  coniunctio  continetur.  Quae  aut  sempiterna  sit 
necesse  est  hoc  eodem  ornatu  quem  videmus,  aut 
certe  perdiuturna,  permanens  ad  longinquum  et 
inmensum  paene  tempus.  Quorum  utrumvis  ut  sit, 
sequitur  natura  mundum  administrari.  Quae  enim 
classium  navigatio  aut  quae  instructio  exercitus  aut, 
rursus  ut  ea  quae  natura  efficit  conferamus,  quae 
procreatio  vitis  aut  arboris,  quae  porro  animantis 
figura  conformatioque  membrorum  tantam  naturae 
sollertiam  significat  quantam  ipse  mundus  ?  Aut 
igitur  nihil  est  quod  sentiente  natura  regatur,  aut 

86  mundum  regi  confitendum  est.  Etenim  qui  rehquas 
naturas  omnes  earumque  semina  contineat  qui  potest 
ipse  non  natura  administrari  ?  ut  si  qui  dentes  et 
pubertatem  natura  dicat  existere,  ipsum  autem 
hominem  cui  ea  existant  non  constare  natura,  non 
intellegat  ea  quae  ecferant  afiquid  ex  sese  perfec- 
tiores  habere  naturas  quam  ea  quae  ex  iis  ecferantur. 
XXXIV.  Omnium  autem  rerum  quae  natura  ad- 
ministrantur  seminator  et  sator  et  parens  ut  ita 
dicam  atque  educator  et  altor  est  mundus  omniaque 
sicut  membra  et  partes  suas  nutricatur  et  continet. 


204 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxxiii.— xxxiv. 

kinds  of  matter.  For  earth  turns  into  water,  water 
into  air,  air  into  aether,  and  then  the  process  is  re- 
versed,  and  aether  becomes  air,  air  water,  and  water 
earth,  the  lowest  of  the  four.  Thus  the  parts  of  the 
world  are  held  in  union  by  the  constant  passage  up 
and  down,  to  and  fro,  of  these  four  elements  of  whicn 

85  all  things  are  composed.  And  this  world-structure 
must  either  be  everlasting  in  this  same  form  in  which 
we  see  it  or  at  all  events  extremely  durable,  and  des- 
tined  to  endure  for  an  ahiiost  immeasurably  pro- 
tracted  period  of  time.  Whichever  alternative  be 
true,  the  inference  follows  that  the  world  is  governed 
by  nature.  For  consider  the  navigation  of  a  fleet,  the 
marshaUing  of  an  army,  or  (to  return  to  instances 
from  the  processes  of  nature)  the  budding  of  a  vine 
or  of  a  tree,  or  even  the  shape  and  structure  of  the 
hmbs  of  an  animal — when  do  these  ever  evidence 
such  a  degree  of  skill  in  nature  as  does  the  world 
itself  }  Either  therefore  there  is  nothing  that  is  ruled 
by  a    sentient   nature,  or  we   must  admit  that  the 

86  world  is  so  ruled.  Indeed,  how  is  it  possible  that  the 
universe,  which  contains  within  itself  all  the  other 
natures  and  their  seeds,  should  not  itself  be  governed 
by  nature  .''  Thus  if  anyone  declared  that  a  mans 
teeth  and  the  hair  on  his  body  are  a  natural  growth 
but  that  the  man  himself  to  whom  they  belong  is  not 
a  natural  organism,  he  would  fail  to  see  that  things 
which  produce  something  from  within  them  must 
have  more  perfect  natures  than  the  things  which  are 
produced  from  them.  XXXIV.  But  the  sower  and 
planter  and  begetter,  so  to  speak,  of  all  the  things 
that  nature  governs,  their  trainer  and  nourisher,  is 
the  world  ;  the  world  gives  nutriment  and  sustenance 
to  all  its  Hmbs  as  it  were,  or  parts.    But  if  the  parts 

205 


CICERO 

Quodsi  mundi  partes  natura  administrantur,  necesse 
est  mundum  ipsum  natura  administrari.  Cuius  qui- 
dem  administratio  nihil  habet  in  se  quod  reprehendi 
possit ;    ex  iis  enim  naturis  quae  erant  quod  effici 

87  optimum  potuit  efFectum  est.  Doceat  ergo  ahquis 
potuisse  meUus  ;  sed  nemo  umquam  docebit,  et 
si  quis  corrigere  aHquid  volet  aut  deterius  faciet 
aut  id  quod  fieri  non  potuerit  desiderabit. 

"  Quodsi  omnes  mundi  partes  ita  constitutae  sunt 
ut  neque  ad  usum  mehores  potuerint  esse  neque 
ad  speciem  pulcriores,  videamus  utrum  ea  fortuita- 
ne  sint  an  eo  statu  quo  cohaerere  nullo  modo 
potuerint  nisi  sensu  moderante  divinaque  pro- 
videntia.  Si  igitur  mehora  sunt  ea  quae  natura 
quam  illa  quae  arte  perfecta  sunt,  nec  ars  efficit 
quicquam  sine  ratione,  ne  natura  quidem  rationis 
expers  est  habenda.  Qui  igitur  convenit,  signum  aut 
tabulam  pictam  cum  aspexeris,  scire  adhibitam  esse 
artem,  cumque  procul  cursum  navigii  videris,  non 
dubitare  quin  id  ratione  atque  arte  moveatur,  aut 
cum  solarium  vel  descriptum  vel  ex  aqua  contemplere, 
intellegere  declarari  horas  arte  non  casu,  mundum 
autem,  qui  et  has  ipsas  artes  et  earum  artifices  et 
cuncta  conplectatur,  consihi  et  rationis  esse  expertem 

88  putare  ?  Quodsi  in  Scythiam  aut  in  Britanniam 
sphaeram  ahquis  tulerit  hanc  quam  nuper  famiharis 
noster  effecit  Posidonius,  cuius  singulae  conversiones 
idem  efficiunt  in  sole  et  in  luna  et  in  quiiique  stelUa 
206 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxxiv. 

of  the  world  are  governed  by  nature,  the  world 
itself  must  needs  be  governed  by  nature.  Now  the 
government  of  the  world  contains  nothing  that  could 
possibly  be  censured  ;  given  the  existing  elements, 
the  best  that  could  be  produced  from  them  has  been 

87  produced.      Let   someone   therefore   prove   that   it  The  worWs 

T  -1   1  1  t  T»  -n  perfection 

could  have  been  better.    But  no  one  ^^ill  ever  prove  must  be  the 
this,  and  anyone  who  essays  to  improve  some  detail  Jnteuigence 
will  either  make  it  worse  or  will  be  demanding  an(thatofa 
improvement  impossible  in  the  nature  of  things.  nJer^ 

"  But  if  the  structure  of  the  world  in  all  its  parts  is 
such  that  it  could  not  have  been  better  whether  in 
point  of  utility  or  beauty,  let  us  consider  whether 
this  is  the  result  of  chance,  or  whether  on  the  contrary 
the  parts  of  the  world  are  in  such  a  condition  that 
they  could  not  possibly  have  cohered  together  if  they 
were  not  controlled  by  intelligence  and  by  divine 
providence.  If  then  the  products  of  nature  are  better 
than  those  of  art,  and  if  art  produces  nothing  A\athout 
reason,  nature  too  cannot  be  deemed  to  be  \vithout 
reason.  When  you  see  a  statue  or  a  painting,  you 
recognize  the  exercise  of  art ;  when  you  observe 
from  a  distance  the  course  of  a  ship,  you  do  not  hesi- 
tate  to  assume  that  its  motion  is  guided  by  reason  and 
by  art ;  when  you  look  at  a  sun-dial  or  a  M-ater-clock, 
you  infer  that  it  tells  the  time  by  art  and  not  by 
chance  ;  how  then  can  it  be  consistent  to  suppose 
that  the  world,  which  includes  both  the  works  of  art 
in  question,  the  craftsmen  who  made  them,  and 
everything  else  besides,  can  be  devoid  of  purpose  and 

88  of  reason  ?  Suppose  a  traveller  to  carry  into  Scythia 
or  Britain  the  orrery  recently  constructed  by  our 
friend  Posidonius,  which  at  each  revolution  repro- 
duces  the  same  motions  of  the  sun,  the  moon  and  the 

207 


CICERO 

errantibus  quod  efficitur  in  caelo  singulis  diebus  et 
noctibus,  quis  in  illa  barbaria  dubitet  quin  ea  sphaera 
sit  perfecta  ratione  ?  XXXV.  Hi  autem  dubitant 
de  mundo  ex  quo  et  oriuntur  et  fiunt  omnia,  casune 
ipse  sit  efFectus  aut  necessitate  aliqua  an  ratione 
ac  mente  divina,  et  Archimedem  arbitrantur  plus 
valuisse  in  imitandis  sphaerae  conversionibus  quam 
naturam  in  efficiendis,  praesertim  cum  multis  parti- 
bus  sint  illa  perfecta  quam  haec  simulata  sollertius. 
89  Utque^  ille  apud  Accium  pastor  qui  navem  numquam 
ante  vidisset,  ut  procul  divinum  et  novum  vehiculum 
Argonautarum  e  monte  conspexit,  primo  admirans  et 
perterritus  hoc  modo  loquitur  : 

tanta  moles  labitur 
fremibunda  ex  alto  ingenti  sonitu  et  spiritu* : 
prae  se  undas  volvit,  vertices  vi  suscitat, 
ruit  prolapsa,  pelagus  respergit  reflat ; 
ita  dum  interruptum  credas  nimbum  volvier, 
dum  quod  sublime  ventis  expulsum  rapi 
saxum  aut  procellis,  vel  globosos  turbines 
existere  ictos  undis  concursantibus, 
nisi  quas  terrestris  pontus  strages  conciet, 
aut  forte  Triton  fuscina  evertens  specus 
subter  radices  penitus  undanti  in  freto 
molem  ex  profundo  saxeam  ad  caelum  eruit. 

Dubitat  primo  quae  sit  ea  natura  quam  cernit  igno- 
tam  ;  idemque  iuvenibus  visis  auditoque  nautico 
cantu  : 

fsicut]^  inciti  atque  alacres  rostris  perfreraunt 
delphini — 

item  aha  multa — 

*  utque  Plosberg  :   atque  A,  B,  atqui  deit, 

2  spiritu  Priscian  :  strepitu. 

3  sicut  non  habuit  pr.  B  {Dieckhoff). 

••  Born  170  b.o.    The  lines  came  from  his  Medea. 
208 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxxiv.— xxxv. 

five  planets  that  take  place  in  the  heavens  every 
twenty-four  hours,  would  any  single  native  doubt  that 
this  orrery  was  the  work  of  a  rational  being  ?  XXXV. 
These  thinkers  however  raise  doubts  about  the  world 
itself  from  which  all  things  arise  and  have  their  being, 
and  debate  whether  it  is  the  product  of  chance  or 
necessity  of  some  sort,  or  of  divine  reason  and  intelli- 
gence  ;  they  think  more  highly  of  the  achievement 
of  Archimedes  in  making  a  model  of  the  revolutions 
of  the  firmament  than  of  that  of  nature  in  creating 
them,  although  the  perfection  of  the  original  shows 
a  craftsmanship  many  times  as  great  as  does  the 
J9  counterfeit.  Just  as  the  shepherd  in  Accius  '^  who  had 
never  seen  a  ship  before,  on  descrying  in  the  distance 
fxom  his  mountain-top  the  strange  vessel  of  the 
Argonauts,  built  by  the  gods,  in  his  first  amazement 
and  alarm  cries  out ; 

so  huge  a  bulk 
GUdes  from  the  deep  with  the  roar  of  a  whistling  wind  t 
Waves  roll  before,  and  eddies  surge  and  swirl ; 
Hurtling  headlong,  it  snorts  and  sprays  the  foam. 
Now  might  one  deem  a  bursting  storm-cloud  roUed, 
Now  that  a  rock  flew  sky^vard,  flung  aloft 
By  wind  and  storm,  or  whirhng  waterspout 
Rose  from  the  clash  of  wave  with  warring  wave ; 
Save  'twere  land-havoc  wrought  by  ocean-flood, 
Or  Triton's  trident,  heaving  up  the  roots 
Of  cavernous  vaults  beneath  the  billowy  sea, 
Hurled  from  the  depth  heaven-high  a  massy  crag. 

At  first  he  wonders  what  the  unknown  creature  that 
he  beholds  may  be.  Then  when  he  sees  the  warriors 
and  hears  the  singing  of  the  sailors,  he  goes  on  : 

the  sportive  dolphins  swift 
Forge  snorting  through  the  foam — 

and  so  on  and  so  on — 

209 


CICERO 

Silvani  melo 
consimilem  ad  aures  cantum  et  auditum  refert. 

90  Ergo  ut  hic  primo  aspectu  inanimum  quiddam  sensu- 
que  vacuum  se  putat  cernere,  post  autem  signis 
certioribus  quale  sit  id  de  quo  dubitaverat  incipit 
suspicari,  sic  philosophi  debuerunt,  si  forte  eos  pri- 
mus  aspectus  mundi  conturbaverat,  postea,  cum  vidis- 
sent  motus  eius  finitos  et  aequabiles  omniaque  ratis 
ordinibus  moderata  inmutabihque  constantia,  intelle- 
gere  inesse  ahquem  non  solum  habitatorem  in  hac 
caelesti  ac  divina  domo  sed  etiam  rectorem  et 
moderatorem  et  tamquam  architectum  tanti  operis 
tantique  muneris. 

XXXVI.    "  Nunc   autem   mihi  videntur  ne  suspi- 
cari  quidem  quanta  sit  admirabihtas  caelestium  rerum 

91  atque  terrestrium.  Principio  enim  terra  sita  in 
media  parte  mundi  circumfusa  undique  est  hac 
animah  spirabiUque  natura  cui  nomen  est  aer — 
Graecum  illud  quidem  sed  perceptum  iam  tamen 
usu  a  nostris  ;  tritum  est  enim  pro  Latino.  Hunc 
rursus  amplectitur  inmensus  aether,  qui  constat  ex 
altissimis  ignibus — mutuemur  hoc  quoque  verbum, 
dicaturque  tam  aether  Latine  quam  dicitur  aer,  etsi 
interpretatur  Pacuvius  : 

hoc  quod  memoro  nostri  caelum,  Graii  perhibent  aethera — 

quasi  vero  non  Graiiis  hoc  dicat !  '  At  Latine  loqui- 
210 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxxv.— xxxvi. 

Brings  to  my  ears  and  hearing  such  a  tune 
As  old  Silvanus  piped. 

90  Well  then,  even  as  the  shepherd  at  the  first  sight 
thinks  he  sees  some  hfeless  and  inanimate  object,  but 
afterwards  is  led  by  clearer  indications  to  begin  to 
suspect  the  true  nature  of  the  thing  about  which  he 
had  previously  been  uncertain,  so  it  would  have  been 
the  proper  course  for  the  philosophers,  if  it  so  hap- 
pened  that  the  first  sight  of  the  world  perplexed  them, 
afterwards  when  they  had  seen  its  definite  and  regular 
motions,  and  all  its  phenomena  controlled  by  fixed 
system  and  unchanging  uniformity,  to  infer  the 
presence  not  merely  of  an  inhabitant  of  this  celestial 
and  divine  abode,  but  also  of  a  ruler  and  governor,  the 
architect  as  it  -vvere  of  this  mighty  and  monumental 
structure. 

XXXVI.  "  But  as  it  is  they  appear  to  me  to  have 
no  suspicion  even  of  the  marvels  of  the  celestial  and 

91  terrestrial  creation.  For  in  the  first  place  the  earth, 
which  is  situated  in  the  centre  of  the  world,  is  sur- 
rounded  on  all  sides  by  this  hving  and  respirable 
substance  named  the  air.  'Air  '  is  a  Greek  word,  but 
yet  it  has  by  this  time  been  accepted  in  use  by  our 
race,  and  in  fact  passes  current  as  Latin.  The  air  in 
turn  is  embraced  by  the  immeasurable  aether,  which 
consists  of  the  most  elevated  portions  of  fire.  The 
term  '  aether  '  also  we  may  borrow,  and  employ  it 
hke  '  air '  as  a  Latin  word,  though  Pacu^ius  provides 
his  readers  vrith  a  translation  : 

What  I  speak  of,  we  call  heaven,  but  the  Greeks  it '  aether' 
call— 

just  as  though  the  man  who  says  this  were  not  a 
Greek!     'Well,  he   is  talking  Latin,'  you  may  say. 

211 


CICERO 

tur.'     Si   quidem   nos  non  quasi  Graece  loquentem 
audiamus  ;  docet  idem  alio  loco  : 

Graiugena  :  de  isto^  aperit  ipsa  oratio. 

92  Sed  ad  maiora  redeamus.  Ex  aethere  igitur  innume- 
rabiles  flammae  siderum  exsistunt,  quorum  est  prin- 
ceps  sol  omnia  clarissima  luce  conlustrans,  multis 
partibus  maior  atque  amplior  quam  terra  universa, 
deinde  reliqua  sidera  magnitudinibus  inmensis. 
Atque  hi  tanti  ignes  tamque  multi  non  modo  nihil 
nocent  terris  rebusque  terrestribus,  sed  ita  prosunt 
ut  si  moti^  loco  sint  conflagrare  terras  necesse  sit 
a  tantis  ardoribus  moderatione  et  temperatione 
sublata. 

93  XXXVII.  "  Hic  ego  non  mirer  esse  quemquam 
qui  sibi  persuadeat  corpora  quaedam  solida  atque 
individua  vi^  et  gravitate  ferri  mundumque  effici 
ornatissimum  et  pulcherrimum  ex  eorum  corporum 
concursione  fortuita  ?  Hoc  qui  existimat  fieri 
potuisse,  non  intellego  cur  non  idem  putet,  si  in- 
numerabiles  unius  et  viginti  formae  Htterarum  vel 
aureae  vel  qualeshbet  ahquo  coiciantur,  posse  ex 
iis  in  terram  excussis  annales  Ennii  ut  deinceps  legi 
possint   effici  ;    quod  nescio   an  ne  in  uno  quidem 

94  versu  possit  tantum  valere  fortuna.  Isti  autem 
quem  ad  modum  adseverant  ex  corpuscuhs  non 
calore  non  quahtate  ahqua  (quam  TroioTrjTa  Graeci 

*  istoc  Bothe.  *  moti  dett. :  mota  A^  B. 

•  <sua>  vi  Lambinus. 

212 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxxvi.— xxxvii. 

Just  so,  if  we  won't  suppose  we  are  hearing  liira 
talk  Greek  ;  in  another  passage  Pacuvius  tells  us  : 

A  Grecian  born  :  my  speech  discloses  that. 

92  But  let  us  return  to  more  important  matters.  From 
aetherthenarisetheinnumerable  fires  of  the  heavenly 
bodies,  chief  of  which  is  the  sun,  who  illumines  all 
things  with  most  brilhant  hght,  and  is  many  times 
greater  and  vaster  than  the  whole  earth  ;  and  after 
him  the  other  stars  of  unmeasured  magnitudes.  And 
these  vast  and  numerous  fires  not  merely  do  no  harm 
to  the  earth  and  to  terrestrial  things,  but  are  actually 
beneficial,  though  with  the  quahfication  that  were 
their  positions  altered,  the  earth  would  inevitably  be 
burnt  up  by  such  enormous  volumes  of  heat  when 
uncontrolled  and  untempered. 

93  XXXVII.  "  At  this  point  must  I  not  marvel  that  nie  worid'8 
there  should  be  anyone  who  can  persuade  himself  resuuTrom* 
that  there  are  certain  soUd  and  indivisible  particles  ^  fortuitous 
of  matter  borne  along  by  the  force  of  gravity,  and  that  of  atoms. 
the  fortuitous  colUsion  of  those  particles  produces 

this  elaborate  and  beautiful  world  ?  I  cannot  under- 
stand  why  he  who  considers  it  possible  for  this  to  have 
occurred  should  not  also  think  that,  if  a  countless 
number  of  copies  of  the  one-and-twenty  letters  of  the 
alphabet,  made  of  gold  or  what  you  vnl\,  were  thrown 
together  into  some  receptacle  and  then  shaken  out  ^ 

on  to  the  ground,  it  would  be  possible  that  they  should 
produce  the  Annals  of  Ennius,  aU  ready  for  the  reader. 
I  doubt  whether  chance  could  possibly  succeed  in 

94  producing  even  a  single  verse  !  Yet  according  to  the 
assertion  of  your  friends,  that  out  of  particles  of  matter 
not  endowed  with  heat,  nor  \^dth  any  '  quaUty ' 
(the  Greek  tQYmpoioies),  nor  with  sense,  but  coUiding 

2J3 


CICERO 

vocant)  non  sensu  praeditis  sed  concurrentibus  temere 
atque  casu  mundum  esse  perfectum,  vel  innumera- 
biles  potius  in  omni  puncto  temporis  alios  nasci  alios 
interire, — quodsi  mundum  efRcere  potest  concursus 
atomorum,  cur  porticum  cur  templum  cur  domum 
cur  urbem  non  potest,  quae  sunt  minus  operosa  et 
multo^  quidem  [faciliora]^  ?  Certe  ita  temere  de 
mundo  effutiunt  ut  mihi  quidem  numquam  hunc 
admirabilem  caeli  ornatum  (qui  locus  est  proximus) 
suspexisse  \ddeantur.  Praeclare  ergo  Aristoteles 
95  '  Si  essent '  inquit  '  qui  sub  terra  semper  habita- 
vissent  bonis  et  inlustribus  domiciliis  quae  essent 
ornata  signis  atque  picturis  instructaque  rebus 
iis  omnibus  quibus  abundant  ii  qui  beati  putantur, 
nec  tamen  exissent  umquam  supra  terram,  ac- 
cepissent  autem  fama  et  auditione  esse  quoddam 
numen  et  vim  deorum,  deinde  aliquo  tempore 
patefactis  terrae  faucibus  ex  illis  abditis  sedibus 
evadere  in  haec  loca  quae  nos  incohmus  atque  exire 
potuissent  :  cum  repente  terram  et  maria  caelumque 
vidissent,  nubium  magnitudinem  ventorumque  vim 
cognovissent  aspexissentque  solem  eiusque  cum 
magnitudinem  pulchritudinemque  tum  etiam  effi- 
cientiam  cognovissent,  quod  is  diem  efficeret  toto 
caelo  luce  diifusa,  cum  autem  terras  nox  opacasset, 
tum  caelum  totum  cernerent  astris  distinctum  et 
ornatum  lunaeque  luminum  varietatem  tum  crescen- 
tis  tum  senescentis  eorumque  omnium  ortus  et 
occasus  atque  in  omni  aeternitate  ratos  inmutabilos- 
que  cursus  —  quae  cum  viderent,  profecto  et  esse 

^  multa  B.  2  secl.  Madvig. 

"  In  the  lost  dialogue  I)e  PJtilosophia^  see  i.  33  n. 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxx\1i. 

together  at  haphazard  and  by  chance,  the  world 
has  emerged  complete,  or  rather  a  comitless  number 
of  worlds  are  some  of  them  being  born  and  some 
perishing  at  every  moment  of  time — yet  if  the 
clash  of  atoms  can  create  a  world,  why  can  it  not 
produce  a  colonnade,  a  temple,  a  house,  a  city,  which 
are  less  and  indeed  much  less  difficult  things  to  make  ? 
The  fact  is,  they  indulge  in  such  random  babbhng 
about  the  world  that  for  my  part  I  cannot  think 
that  they  have  ever  looked  up  at  this  marvellously 
beautiful  sky — which  is  my  next  topic.  So  Aristotle 
95  says  <*  briUiantly  :  *  If  there  were  beings  who  had  al-  oniy 
ways  Uved  beneath  the  earth,  in  comfortable,  well-Ut  bUndl^nsHr 
dvreUings,  decorated  with  statues  and  pictures  and  the  dhine 
furnished  \\ith  all  the  luxuries  enjoyed  by  persons  nauu-?^^ 
thought  to  be  supremely  happy,  and  who  though  they 
had  never  come  forth  above  the  ground  had  learnt 
by  report  and  by  hearsay  of  the  existence  of  certain 
deities  or  divine  powers  ;  and  then  if  at  some  time 
the  jaws  of  the  earth  M-ere  opened  and  they  were  able 
to  escape  from  their  hidden  abode  and  to  come  forth 
into  the  regions  which  we  inhabit  ;  when  they  sud- 
denly  had  sight  of  the  earth  and  the  seas  and  the  sky, 
and  came  to  know  of  the  vast  clouds  and  mighty 
winds,  and  beheld  the  sun,  and  reaUzed  not  only  its 
size  and  beauty  but  also  its  potency  in  causing  the 
day  by  shedding  Ught  over  aU  the  sky,  and,  after 
night  had  darkened  the  earth,  they  then  saw  the 
whole  sky  spangled  and  adorned  with  stars,  and  the 
changing  phases  of  the  moon's  Ught,  now  waxing  and 
now  waning,  and  the  risings  and  settings  of  aU  these 
heavenly  bodies  and  their  courses  fixed  and  change- 
less  throughout  aU  eternity, — when  they  saw  these 
things,  surely  they  would  think  that  the  gods  exist 

215 


CICERO 

deos  et  haec  tanta  opera  deorum  esse  arbitrarentur.* 

96  XXXVIII.  Atque  haec  quidem  ille ;  nos  autem 
tenebras  cogitemus  tantas  quantae  quondam  erup- 
tione  Aetnaeorum  ignium  finitimas  regiones  obscura- 
visse  dicuntur.  ut  per  biduum  nemo  hominem  homo 
agnosceret,  cum  autem  tertio  die  sol  inluxisset  tum  ut 
revixisse  sibi  viderentur  :  quodsi  hoc  idem  ex  aeternis 
tenebris  contingeret  ut  subito  lucem  aspiceremus, 
quaenam  species  caeH  videretur  ?  Sed  adsiduitate 
cotidiana  et  consuetudine  oculorum  adsuescunt 
animi,  neque  admirantur  neque  requirunt  rationes 
earum  rerum  quas  semper  vident,  proinde  quasi 
novitas  nos  magis  quam  magnitudo  rerum  debeat 

97  ad  exquirendas  causas  excitare.  Quis  enim  hunc 
hominem  dixerit  qui,  cum  tam  certos  caeU  motus 
tam  ratos  astrorum  ordines  tamque  inter  se  omnia 
conexa  et  apta  ^iderit,  neget  in  his  ullam  inesse 
rationem,  eaque  casu  fieri  dicat  quae  quanto  consilio 
gerantur  nuUo  consiUo  adsequi  possumus  ?  An, 
cum  machinatione  quadam  moveri  ahquid  videmus, 
ut  sphaeram  ut  horas  ut  aUa  permulta,  non  dubi- 
tamus  quin  iUa  opera  sint  rationis,  cum  autem 
impetum  caeU  cum  admirabiU  celeritate  moveri 
vertique  videamus^  constantissime  conficientem 
vicissitudines  anniversarias  cum  summa  salute  et 
conservatione    rerum    omnium,   dubitamus   quin   ea 

*  videmus  dett, 
216 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  11.  xxxvii.— xxxviii. 

and  that  these  mighty  marvels  are  their  handiwork.* 
96  XXXVIII.  Thus  far  Aristotle  ;  let  us  for  our  part 
imagine  a  darkness  as  dense  as  that  which  is  said  to 
have  once  covered  the  neighbouring  districts  on  the 
occasion  of  an  eruption  of  the  volcano  Etna,  so  that 
for  two  days  no  man  could  recognize  his  fellow,  and 
when  on  the  third  day  the  sun  shone  upon  them,  they 
felt  as  if  they  had  come  to  life  again  :  well,  suppose 
that  after  darkness  had  prevailed  from  the  beginning 
of  time,  it  similarly  happened  to  ourselves  suddenly 
to  behold  the  Hght  of  day,  what  should  we  think  of  the 
splendour  of  the  heavens  ?  But  daily  recurrence  and 
habit  familiarize  our  minds  with  the  sight,  and  we 
feel  no  surprise  or  curiosity  as  to  the  reasons  for 
things  that  we  see  always  ;  just  as  if  it  were  the 
novelty  and  not  rather  the  importance  of  phenomena 
that  ought  to  arouse  us  to  inquire  into  their  causes. 
97  Who  would  not  deny  the  name  of  human  being  to  a 
man  who,  on  seeing  the  regular  motions  of  the  heaven 
and  the  fixed  order  of  the  stars  and  the  accurate  inter- 
connexion  and  interrelation  of  all  things,  can  deny 
that  these  things  possess  any  rational  design,  and  can 
maintain  that  phenomena,  the  wisdom  of  whose 
ordering  transcends  the  capacity  of  our  wisdom  to 
understand  it,  take  place  by  chance  ?  When  we  see 
something  moved  by  machinery,  hke  an  orrery  or 
clock  or  many  other  such  things,  we  do  not  doubt  that 
these  contrivances  are  the  work  of  reason  ;  when 
therefore  we  behold  the  whole  compass  of  the  heaven 
moving  with  revolutions  of  marvellous  velocity  and 
executing  with  perfect  regularity  the  annual  changes 
of  the  seasons  wdth  absolute  safety  and  security  for 
all  things,  how  can  we  doubt  that  all  this  is  effected 

217 


CICERO 

non  solum  ratione  fiant  sed  etiam  excellenti  divlna- 
que  ratione  ? 

98  "  Licet  enim  iam  remota  subtilitate  disputandi 
oculis  quodam  modo  contemplari  pulchritudinem 
rerum  earum  quas  di\dna  providentia  dicimus  consti- 
tutas.  XXXIX.  Ac  principio  terra  universa  cernatur, 
locata  in  media  sede  mundi,  solida  et  globosa  et 
undique  ipsa  in  sese  nutibus  suis  conglobata,  vestita 
floribus  herbis  arboribus  frugibus,  quorum  omnium 
incredibihs  multitudo  insatiabili  varietate  distingui- 
tur.  Adde  huc  fontium  gelidas  perennitates,  liquores 
perlucidos  amnium,  riparum  vestitus  viridissimos, 
speluncarum  concavas  altitudines,  saxorum  asperi- 
tates,  inpendentium  montium  altitudines  inmensi- 
tatesque   camporum ;     adde    etiam   reconditas   auri 

99  argentique  venas  infinitamque  vim  marmoris.  Quae 
vero  et  quam  varia  genera  bestiarum  vel  cicurum 
vel  ferarum  !  qui  volucrium  lapsus  atque  cantus  ! 
qui  pecudum  pastus  !  quae  vita  silvestrium  !  Quid 
iam  de  hominum  genere  dicam  ?  qui  quasi  cultores 
terrae  constituti  non  patiuntur  eam  nec  inmanitate 
beluarum  efFerari  nec  stirpium  asperitate  vastari, 
quorumque  operibus  agri,  insulae  Utoraque  coUucent 
distincta  tectis  et  urbibus.  Quae  si  ut  animis 
sic  ocuUs   videre  possemus,  nemo  cunctam  intuens 

100  terram  de  divina  ratione  dubitaret.  At  vero  quanta 
maris  est  pulchritudo  !  quae  species  universi  !  quae 
multitudo  et  varietas  insularum  !  quae  amoenitates 
orarum  ac  htorum  !  quot  genera  quamque  dis- 
paria   partim    submersarum,   partim    fluitantium   et 

218 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxxviii. 


not  merely  by  reason,  but  by  a  reason  that  is  trans- 
cendent  and  divine  ? 

i8      "  For  we  may  now  put  aside  elaborate  argument  (3)  Detaiied 
and  gaze  as  it  were  with  our  eyes  upon  the  beauty  of  Se' wo  "der^ 
the  creations  of  divine  providence,  as  we  declare  them  of  nature 
to  be.    XXXIX.  And  first  let  us  behold  the  whole  ^^^  '^'"'^^^' 
earth,  situated  in  the  centre  of  the  world,  a  sohd  The  earth 
spherical  mass  gathered  into  a  globe  by  the  natural  other*^^ 
gra\itation  of  all  its  parts,  clothed  \\ith  flowers  and  eiemecta 
grass  and  trees  and  corn,  forms  of  vegetation  all  of 
them  incredibly  numerous  and  inexhaustibly  varied 
and  diverse.    Add  to  these  cool  fountains  ever  flowincf, 
transparent  streams  and  rivers,  their  banks  clad  in 
brighest  verdure,  deep  vaulted  caverns,  craggy  rocks, 
sheer  mountain  heights  and  plains  of  immeasurable 
extent  ;  add  also  the  hidden  veins  of  gold  and  silver, 

9  and  marble  in  unUmited  quantity.  Think  of  all  the 
various  species  of  animals,  both  tame  and  wild!  think 
of  the  flights  and  songs  of  birds  !  of  the  pastures 
filled  with  cattle,  and  the  teeming  hfe  of  the  wood- 
lands  1  Then  why  need  I  speak  of  the  race  of  men  ? 
who  are  as  it  were  the  appointed  tillers  of  the  soil,  and 
who  sufFer  it  not  to  become  a  savage  haunt  of  mon- 
strous  beasts  of  prey  nor  a  barren  waste  of  thickets 
and  brambles,  and  whose  industry  diversifies  and 
adornsthe  landsandislandsand  coasts  with  houses  and 
cities.  Could  we  but  behold  these  things  with  our  eyes 
as  we  can  picture  them  in  our  minds,  no  one  taking 
in  the  whole  earth  at  one  view  could  doubt  the  divine 

>0  reason.  Then  how  great  is  the  beauty  of  the  sea  ! 
how  glorious  the  aspect  of  its  vast  expanse  !  how  many 
and  how  diverse  its  islands  !  how  lovely  the  scenery  of 
its  coasts  and  shores  !  how  numerous  and  how  differ- 
ent  the  species  of  marine  animals,  some  dweUing  in 

219 


CICERO 

iimantiiiin  beluarum,  partim  ad  saxa  nati\as  testis 
inhaerentium  !  Ipsum  autem  mare  sic  terram  appe- 
tens  litoribus  alludit  ut  una  ex  duabus  naturis  conflata 

101  videatur.  Exin  mari  finitumus  aer  die  et  nocte  di- 
stinguitur,  isque  tum  fusus  et  extenuatus  sublime 
fertur,tum  autem  concretus  in  nubes  cogitur  umorem- 
que  colligens  terram  auget  imbribus,  tum  effluens 
huc  et  illuc  ventos  efficit.  Idem  annuas  frigorum  et 
calorum  facit  varietates,  idemque  et  volatus  alitum 
sustinet  et  spiritu^  ductus  alit  et  sustentat  animantes. 
XL.  Restat  ultimus  et  a  domiciliis  nostris  altissimus 
omnia  cingens  et  coercens  caeh  complexus,  qui  idem 
aether  vocatur,  extrema  ora  et  determinatio  mundi, 
in  quo  cum  admirabiUtate  maxima  igneae  formae 

102  cursus  ordinatos  definiunt.  E  quibus  sol,  cuius  ma- 
gnitudine  multis  partibus  terra  superatur,  circum  eam 
ipsam  vol\*itur,  isque  oriens  et  occidens  diem  noctem- 
que  conficit,  et  modo  accedens  tum  autem  recedens 
binas  in  singuHs  annis  reversiones  ab  extremo  cor- 
trarias  f^it,  quarum  in  intervallo  tum  quasi  tristitia 
quadam  contrahit  terram,  tum  vicissim  laetificat  ut 

103  cum  caelo  hilarata  videatur.  Luna  autem,  quae  est, 
ut  ostendunt  mathematici,  maior  quam  dimidia  pars 
terrae,  isdem  spatiis  vagatur  quibus  sol,  sed  tum 
congrediens  cum  sole  tum  digrediens  et  eam  lucem 
quam  a  sole  accepit  mittit  in  terras  et  varias  ipsa 

^  spiritu  det.  :  spiritus. 


220 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xxxix.— xl. 

the  depths,  some  floating  and  swimming  on  the  siir- 
face,  some  clinging  in  their  own  shells  to  the  rocks  ! 
And  the  sea  itself,  yearning  for  the  earth,  sports 
against  her  shores  in  such  a  fashion  that  the  two 

101  elements  appear  to  be  fused  into  one.  Next  the  air 
bordering  on  the  sea  undergoes  the  alternations  of 
day  and  night,  and  now  rises  upward  melted  and 
rarefied,  now  is  condensed  and  compressed  into  clouds 
and  gathering  moisture  enriches  the  earth  with  rain, 
now  flows  forth  in  currents  to  and  fro  and  produces 
winds.  Likewise  it  causes  the  yearly  variations  of 
cold  and  heat,  and  it  also  both  supports  the  flight  of 
birds  and  inhaled  by  breathing  nourishes  and  sustains 

the  animal  race.     XL.  There  remains  the  element  The  sun, 
that  is  most  distant  and  highest  removed  from  our  pianete!^ 
abodes,  the  all-engirdUng,  all-confining  circuit  of  the 
sky,  also  named  the  aether,  the  farthest  coast  and 
frontier  of  the  world,  wherein  those  fiery  shapes  most 

102  marvellously  trace  out  their  ordered  courses.  Of 
these  the  sun,  which  many  times  surpasses  the  earth 
in  magnitude,  revolves  about  her,  and  by  his  rising 
and  setting  causes  day  and  night,  and  now  approach- 
ing,  then  again  retiring,  twice  each  year  makes  re- 
turns  in  opposite  directions  from  his  farthest  point, 
and  in  the  period  of  those  returns  at  one  time  causes 
the  face  of  the  earth  as  it  were  to  contract  with  a 
gloomy  frown,  and  at  another  restores  her  to  gladness 
till  she  seems  to  smile  in  sympathy  with  the  sky. 

103  Again  the  moon,  w^hich  is,  as  the  mathematicians 
(prove,  more  than  half  the  size  of  the  earth,  roams  in 
the  same  courses  as  the  sun,  but  at  one  time  converg- 
ing  with  the  sun  and  at  another  diverging  from  it, 
both  bestows  upon  the  earth  the  hght  that  it  has 
borrowed  from  the  sun  and  itself  undergoes  divers 

I  221 


CICERO 

lucis  mutationes  habet,  atque  etiam  tum  subieeta 
atque  opposita  soli  radios  eius  et  lumen  obscurat,  timi 
ipsa  incidens  in  umbram  terrae,  cum  est  e  regione 
solis,  interpositu  interiectuque  terrae  repente  deficit. 
Isdemque  spatiis  eae  stellae  quas  vagas  dicimus  cir- 
cum  terram  feruntur  eodemque  modo  oriuntur  et  occi- 
dunt,  quarum  motus  tum  incitantur,  tum  retardantur, 

104  saepe  etiam  insistunt.  Quo  spectaculo  nihil  potest 
admirabiHus  esse,  nihil  pulchrius.  Sequitur  stellarum 
inerrantium  maxima  multitudo,  quarum  ita  discripta 
distinctio  est  ut  ex  notarum  figurarum  similitudine 
nomina  invenerint."^  XLI.  Atque  hoc  loco  me 
intuens :  "  Utar,"  inquit,  "  carminibus  Arateis,  quae  a 
te  admodum  adulescentulo  conversa  ita  me  delectant 
quia  Latina  sunt  ut  multa  ex  iis  memoria  teneam. 
Ergo,  ut  ocuUs  adsidue  videmus,  sine  uUa  mutatione 
aut  varietate 

cetera  labuntur  celeri  caelestia  motu 

cum  caeloque  simul  noctesque  diesque  fenintur, 

105  quorum  contemplatione  nuUius  expleri  potest  animus 
naturae  constantiam  videre  cupientis  ; 

extremusque  adeo  duplici  de  cardine  vertex 
dicitur^sse  polus. 

Hunc  circum  Arctoe  duae  feruntur  numquam  occi- 
dentes  ; 

ex  his  altera  apud  Graios  Cynosura  vocatur, 
altera  dicitur  esse  Hehce, 

1  huc  c.  xliii.  init.  atque  ita  .  .  ,  appareat  Mayor  trans- 
ponit. 

"  Aratus  of  SoU  in  Cilicia,  Jl.  late  3rd  cent.  b.c.  at  the 
Macedonian  court,  versified  the  astronomy  of  Plato's  pupil 
Eudoxus,  and  weather-forecasts,  in  two  pocms,  Phaenomena 
and  Diosemeia.  Of  Cicero's  translation  of  the  former  two- 
tliirds,  of  the  latter  {Prognostica)  a  few  lines  survive. 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xl.— xli. 

changes  of  its  light,  and  also  at  one  time  is  in  con- 
junction  and  hides  the  sun,  darkening  the  hght  of  its 
rays,  at  another  itself  comes  into  the  shadow  of  the 
earth,  being  opposite  to  the  sun,  and  owing  to  the 
interposition  and  interference  of  the  earth  is  sud- 
denly  extinguished.  And  the  so-called  wandering 
stars  (planets)  travel  in  the  same  courses  round  the 
earth,  and  rise  and  set  in  the  same  way,  with  motions 
now  accelerated,  now  retarded,  and  sometimes  even 

104  ceasing  altogether.    Nothing  can  be  more  marvellous 

or  more  beautiful  than  this  spectacle.  Next  comes  The  con- 
the  vast  multitude  of  the  fixed  stars,  grouped  in  con-  steiiations. 
stellations  so  clearly  defined  that  they  have  received 
names  derived  from  their  resemblance  to  familiar 
objects."  XLI.  Here  he  looked  at  me  and  said,  "  I 
\yill  make  use  of  the  poems  of  Aratus,°  as  translated 
by  yourself  when  quite  a  young  man,  which  because 
of  their  Latin  dress  give  me  such  pleasure  that  I 
retain  many  of  them  in  memory.  Well  then,  as  we 
continually  see  with  our  own  eyes,  without  any  change 
or  variation 

Swiftly  the  other  heavenly  bodies  glide, 
All  day  and  night  travelling  with  the  sky, 

105  and  no  one  who  loves  to  contemplate  the  uniformity 
of  nature  can  ever  be  tired  of  gazing  at  them. 

The  furthest  tip  of  either  axle-end 
Is  called  the  pole. 

Round  the  pole  circle  the  two  Bears,  which  never  set ; 

One  of  these  twain  the  Greeks  call  Cynosure,* 
The  other  Helice "  is  named  ; 

*  '  Dog's  tail,'  perhaps  the  curve  of  the  thrce  stars. 
•  'The  spiral,'  perhaps  of  its  motion  round  the  pole. 

223 


CICERO 

cuius  quidem  clarissimas  stellas  totis  noctibus  cer- 
nimus, 

quas  nostri  Septem  soliti  vocitare  Triones  ; 

106  paribusque^  stellis  similiter  distinctis  eundem  caeli 
verticem  lustrat  parva  Cynosura  : 

hac  fidunt  duce  nocturna  Phoenices  in  alto ; 
sed  prior  illa  magis  stellis  distincta  refulget 
et  late  prima  confestim  a  nocte  videtur, 
haec  vero  parva  est,  sed  nautis  usus  in  hac  est, 
nam  cursu  interiore  brevi  convertitur  orbe. 

XLII.  Et    quo    sit    earum    stellarum    admirabilior 

aspectus, 

has  inter,  veluti  rapido  cum  gurgite  flumen, 
torvus  Draco  serpit  subter  superaque  revolvens 
sese  couficiensque  sinus  e  corpore  flexos. 

107  Eius  cum  totius  est  praeclara  species,  <tum>2  in  primis 
aspicienda  est  figura  capitis  atque  ardor  oculorum  : 

huic  non  una  modo  caput  ornans  stella  relucet, 
verum  tempora  sunt  duplici  fulgore  notata 
e  trucibusque  oculis  duo  fervida  lumina  flagrant 
atque  uno  mentnm  radianti  sidere  lucet ; 
obstipum  caput  at  tereti  cervice  reflexum 
obtutum  in  cauda  maioris  figere  dicas. 

108  Et  reliquum  quidem  corpus  Draconis  totis  noctibus 
cernimus  :   ^ 

hoc  caput  hic  paulum  sese  subito  aequore  condit,^ 
ortus  ubi  atque  obitus  partem*  admiscetur  in  unam.* 

Id  autem  caput 

attingens  defessa  velut  maerentis  imago 
vertitur, 

^  propiusque  ?  Plasherg.  *  add.  Manutius. 

•  subito  aequore  condit  Grotius  :   subitoque  recondit. 

*  partem  det.  :  partim  A,  B,  parti  Cochanovius. 

^  unam  H.  Stephanus  :  una. 

*  Said  to  mean  '  threshing-oxen.' 
S24 


I 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xli.— xlii. 

and  the  latter's  extremely  bright  stars,  visible  to  U3 
all  night  long, 

Our  countrymen  the  Seven  Triones"  call  ; 

.06  and  the  httle  Cynosure  consists  of  an  cqual  number 
of  stars  similarly  grouped,  and  revolves  round  the 
same  pole  : 

Phoenician  sailors  place  in  this  their  trust 
To  guide  their  course  by  night ;  albeit  the  other 
Shines  out  before  and  with  more  radiant  stars 
At  earhest  night-fall  far  and  wide  is  seen, 
Yet  small  though  this  one  is,  the  mariner 
On  this  reUes,  since  it  revolves  upon 
An  inner  circle  and  a  shorter  path. 

XLII.  Also  the  further  to  enhance  the  beauty  of 
those  constellations, 

Bctween  them,  like  a  river  flowing  swift, 

The  fierce-eyed  Serpent  winds  ;  in  sinuous  coils 

Over  and  under  twines  his  snaky  frame. 

07  His  whole  appearance  is  very  remarkable,  but  the 
most  striking  part  of  him  is  the  shape  of  his  head  and 
the  brilhance  of  his  eyes  : 

No  single  shining  star  his  head  adorns, 
His  brows  are  by  a  double  radiance  marked, 
And  from  his  cruel  eyes  two  Ughts  flash  out, 
The  while  his  chin  gleams  with  one  flashing  star ; 
His  graceful  neck  is  bent,  his  head  recUned, 
As  if  at  gaze  upon  the  Great  Bear's  tail. 

108  And  while  the  rest  of  the  Serpent's  body  is  visible  all 
night  long, 

This  head  a  moment  sinks  beneath  the  sea, 
Where  meet  its  setting  and  its  rise  in  one. 

Next  to  its  head  however 

The  weary  figure  of  a  man  in  sorrow 
R.evolves, 

225 


CICERO 

quam  quidem  Graeci 

Engonasin  vocitant,  genibus  quia  nixa  feratur. 
hic  illa  eximio  posita  est  fulgore  Corona. 

Atque  haec  quidem  a  tergo,  propter  caput  autem 
Anguitenens, 

109  quem  claro  perhibent  Ophiuchum  nomine  Graii. 
hic  pressu  duplici  palmarum  continet  Anguem, 
atque  eius  ipse  manet  reHgatus  corpore  torto, 
namque  virum  medium  serpens  sub  pectora  cingit. 
ille  tamen  nitens  graviter  vestigia  ponit 

atque  oculos  urguet  pedibus  pectusque  Nepai. 

Septentriones  autem  sequitur 

Arctophylax,  vulgo  qui  dicitur  esse  Bootes, 

quod  quasi  temoni  adiunctam  prae  se  quatit  Arctunu 

110  Dein  quae  sequuntur^ :  huic  enim^  Booti 

subter  praecordia  fixa  videtur 
stella  micans  radiis,  Arcturus  nomine  claro, 

cuius  <pedibus>3  subiecta  fertur 

spicum  inlustre  tenens  splendenti  corpore  Virgo. 

XLIII.  Atque  ita  dimetata  signa  sunt  ut  in  tantis 

discriptionibus  divina  sollertia  appareat*  : 
et  natos  Geminos  invises  sub  caput  Arcti, 
subiectus  mediae  est  Cancer,  pedibusque  tenetur 
magnus  Leo  tremulam  quatiens  e  corpore  flammam. 

Auriga         ^ 

sub  laeva  Geminorum  obductus  parte  feretur  ; 
adversum  caput  huic  Hehcae  truculenta  tuetur, 
at  Capra  laevum  umerum  clara  obtinet. 

[Tum  quae  sequuntur  \f 

verum  haec  est  magno  atque  inlustri  praedita  signo^ 
contra  Haedi  exiguum  iaciunt  mortahbus  ignem. 

^  dein  .  .  .  sequuntur  Mayor  tr.  post  Virgo  infra. 
'  enim  07Ji.  Mayor.  '  add.  Davies. 

•  atque  .  .  .  appareat  Mayor  in  c.  xl.fin.  tr.  *  Heindorf, 

■  Perhaps  the  harvest  began  under  this  sign. 
226 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xlii.— xliii. 

which  the  Greeks 

Engonasin  call,  as  travelling  "on  his  knees." 
Here  is  the  Crown,  of  radiance  supreme. 

This  is  in  the  rear  of  the  Serpent,  while  at  its  head  is 
the  Serpent-holder, 

109  By  Greeks  called  Ophiuchiis,  famous  name  ! 

Firm  between  both  his  hands  he  "  holds  the  Snake,'* 

Himself  in  bondage  by  its  body  held, 

For  serpent  round  the  waist  engirdles  man. 

Yet  treads  he  firm  and  presses  all  his  weight, 

Trampling  upon  the  Scorpion's  eyes  and  breast. 

After  the  Septentriones  comes 

The  Bear-ward,  commonly  Bootes  called, 
Because  he  drives  the  Bear  yoked  to  a  pole. 

110  And  then  the  following  Hnes  :   for  with  this  Bootes 

beneath  his  bosom  fixed  appears 
A  ghttering  star,  Arcturus,  famous  name, 

and  below  his  feet  moves 

The  Virgin  bright,  holding  her  ear  of  corn  • 
Resplendent. 

XLIII.  And  the  constellations  are  so  accurately 
spaced  out  that  their  vast  and  ordered  array  clearly 
displays  the  skill  of  a  divine  creator  ; 

By  the  Bear's  head  you  will  descry  the  Twins, 
Beneath  its  belly  the  Crab,  and  in  its  claws 
The  Lion's  bulk  emits  a  twinkhng  ray. 

The  Charioteer 

Hidden  beneath  the  Twins'  left  flank  will  ghde^ 

Him  Helice  confronts  with  aspect  fierce  ; 

At  his  left  shoulder  the  bright  She-goat  stands. 

[And  then  the  following  :] 

A  constellation  vast  and  brilliant  she, 
Whereas  the  Kids  emit  a  scanty  light 
Upon  mankind. 

227 


CICERO 

Cuius  sub  pedibus 

corniger  est  valido  conixus^  corpore  Taurus. 

111  Eius  caput  stellis  conspersum  est  frequentibus  : 

has  Graeci  stellas  Hyadas  vocitare  suerunt, 
a  pluendo    (red'    enim   est  pluere),   nostri   imperite 
Suculas.  quasi  a  subus  essent,  non  ab  imbribus  nomi- 
natae.     Minorem    autem    Septentrionem    Cepheus 
passis  palmis  a  tergo^  subsequitur  : 

namque  ipsum  ad  tergum  Cynosurae  vertitur  ArctL 
Hunc  antecedit 

obscura  specie  stellarum  Cassiepia. 
hanc  autem  inlustri  versatur  corpore  propter 
Andromeda  aufugiens  aspectum  maesta  parentis. 
huic  Equus  ille  iubam  quatiens  fulgore  micanti 
summum  contingit  caput  alvo,  stellaque  iungens 
una  tenet  duplices  communi  lumine  formas 
aeternum  ex  astris  cupiens  conectere  nodum. 
exin  contortis  Aries  cura  cornibus  haeret ; 

quem  propter 

Pisces,  quorum  alter  paulum  praelabitur  ante 
et  magis  horriferis  Aquilonis  tangitur  auris. 

112  XLIV.  Ad  pedes  Andromedae  Perseus  describitur, 

quem  summa  <a>^  regione  aquilonis  flamina  pulsant; 
cuius 

pTopter  laevum  genus*  omni  ex  parte  locatas 

parvas^  Vergilias  tenui  cum  luce  videbis. 

inde  Fides  posita  et  leviter  convexa  videtur, 

inde  est  ales  Avis  lato  sub  tegmine  caeli. 
Capiti  autem  Equi  proxima  est  Aquarii  dextra  totus- 
que  deinceps  Aquarius. 

1  connixus  dett.  :  conexus  A,  B. 

2  terga  A,  B,  <post>  terga  Plasberg. 

•  Baiter  :  ab  B  corr.  *  genus  B  corr.  :  genum. 

^  omni  .  .  .  parvas  B  corr.  :  om.  cett, 

•  See  above,  §  105. 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xHii.— xliv. 

Beneath  her  feet 

Crouches  the  horn6d  Bull,  a  mighty  frame. 

1  His  head  is  bespangled  with  a  multitude  of  stars  : 

The  Greeks  were  wont  to  call  them  Hyades, 

from  their  bringing  rain,  the  Greek  for  which  is  hyein, 
while  our  nation  stupidly  names  them  the  Sucking- 
pigs,  as  though  the  name  Hyades  were  derived  from 
the  word  for  '  pig  '  and  not  from  '  rain.'  Behind  the 
Lesser  Septentrio  follows  Cepheus,  with  open  hands 
outstretched  ; 

For  close  behind  the  Bear,  the  Cynosure,* 
He  wheels. 

Before  him  comes 

Cassiepia  with  her  darkUng  stars, 

And  next  to  her  roams  a  bright  shape,  the  sad 

Andromeda,  shunning  her  mother's  sight. 

The  belly  of  the  Horse  touches  her  head, 

Proudly  he  tosses  high  his  ghttering  mane  ; 

One  common  star  holds  thcir  twin  shapes  conjoint 

And  constellations  Hnked  indissohibly. 

Close  by  them  stands  the  Ram  with  wreathed  horns  ) 

and  next  to  him 

The  Fishes  ghding,  one  some  space  in  front 

And  nearer  to  the  North  Wind's  shuddering  breath. 

2  XLIV.  At  the  feet  of  Andromeda  Perseus  is  outhned, 

Assailed  by  all  the  zenith's  northern  blasts  : 

and  by  him 

at  his  left  knee  placed  on  every  side 
The  tiny  l^k'iads  dim  you  will  descry. 
And,  slightly  sloping,  next  the  Lyre  is  seen, 
Next  the  winged  Bird  'neath  heaven's  wide  canopy. 

Close  to  the  Horse's  head  is  the  right  hand  of 
AquariuSj  and  then  his  whole  figure. 

229 


CICERO 

tum  gelidum  valido  de  pectore  frigus  anhelans 
corpore  semifero  magno  Capricornus  in  orbe ; 
quem  cum  perpetuo  vestivit  lumine  Titan, 
brumali  flectens  contorquet  tempore  currum. 

113  Hic  autem  aspicitur 

ut  sese  ostendens  emergit  Scorpios  alte 
posteriore  trahens  plexum^  vi  corporis  Arcum, 
quem  propter  nitens  pinnis  convolvitur  Ales, 
at  propter  se  Aquila  ardenti  cum  corpore  portat. 

Deinde  Delphinus, 

exinde  Orion  obliquo  corpore  nitens. 

114  Quem  subsequens 

fervidus  ille  Canis  stellarum  luce  refulget. 

Post  Lepus  subsequitur, 

curriculum  numquam  defesso  corpore  sedans  ; 
at  Canis  ad  caudam  serpens  prolabitur  Argo. 
hanc  Aries  tegit  et  squamoso  corpore  Pisces 
Fluminis  inlustri  tangentem  corpore^  ripas. 

Quem  longe  serpentem  et  manantem  aspicies, 

proceraque  Vincla  videbis, 
quae  retinent  Pisces  caudarum  a  parte  locata  .  •  • 
inde  Nepae  cernes  propter  fulgentis  acumen 
Aram,  quam  flatu  permulcet  spiritus  Austri. 

Propte#que  Centaurus 

cedit  Equi  partis  properans  subiungere  CheHs. 
hic  dextram  porgens,  quadrupes  qua  vasta  tenetur, 
tendit  et  inlustrem  truculentus  cedit  ad  Aram  ; 
hic  sese  infernis  e  partibus  erigit  Hydra, 

cuius  longe  corpus  est  fusum, 

in  medioque  sinu  fulgens  Cratera  relucet, 
extremam  nitens  plumato  corpore  Corvus 
rostro  tundit ;  et  hic  Geminis  est  ille  sub  ipsis 
Ante-Canem,'  UpoKviop  Graio  qui  nomine  fertur. 

*  flexum  A  corr.,  B  corr.  ^  pectore  Heinsius, 

3  Antecanis  Lamlinus. 

230 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xHv. 

Next  in  the  mighty  zone  comes  Capricorn, 
Half-brute,  half-man  ;  his  mip:hty  bosom  breathes 
An  icy  chill ;  and  when  the  Titan  sun 
Arrayeth  him  with  never-ceasinja:  light, 
He  turns  his  car  to  climb  the  wintry  sky. 

113  Here  we  behold 

How  there  appears  the  Scorpion  rising  high, 
His  mighty  tail  traiUng  the  bended  Bow  ; 
Near  which  on  soaring  pinions  wheels  the  Bird 
And  near  to  this  the  burning  Eagle  flies. 

Then  the  Dolphin, 

And  then  Orion  slopes  his  stooping  frame. 

114  Following  him 

The  glowing  Dog-star  radiantly  shines. 

After  this  follows  the  Hare. 

Who  never  resteth  weary  from  her  race  ; 

At  the  Dog's  tail  meandering  Argo  ghdes. 

Her  the  Ram  covers,  and  the  scaly  Fishes, 

And  her  bright  breast  touches  the  River's  "  banks. 

Its  long  winding  current  you  will  observe, 

And  in  the  zenith  you  will  see  the  Chains 
That  bind  the  Fishes,  hanging  at  their  tails.  .  .  . 
Then  you'll  descry,  near  the  bright  Scorpion's  sting, 
The  Altar,  fanned  by  Auster's  gentle  breath. 

And  by  it  the  Centaur 

Proceeds,  in  haste  to  join  the  Horse's  parts 
Unto  the  Claws ;  extending  his  right  hand, 
That  grasps  the  mighty  beast,  he  marches  on 
And  grimly  strides  towards  the  Altar  bright. 
Here  Hydra  rises  from  the  nether  realms, 

her  body  Midely  outstretched  ; 

And  in  her  midmost  coil  the  Wine-bowl  gleams, 
While  pressing  at  her  tail  the  feathered  Crow 
Pecks  with  his  beak  ;  and  here,  hard  by  the  Twins, 
The  Hound's  Forerunner,  in  Greek  named  Prokyon. 

•  Called  Eridanus,  and  identified  with  the  Po  or  the  Nile. 

231 


CICERO 

115  Haec  omnis  discriptio  siderum  atque  hic  tantus  caeli 
ornatus  ex  corporibus  huc  et  illuc  casu  et  temere 
cursantibus  potuisse  effici  cuiquam  sano  videri  potest  ? 
an^  vero  alia  quae  natura  mentis  et  rationis  expers 
haec  efficere  potuit?  quae  non  modo  ut  fierent  ratione 
eguerunt  sed  intellegi  quaUa  sint  sine  summa  ratione 
non  possunt. 

XLV.  "  Nec  vero  haec  solum  admirabiha,  sed 
nihil  maius  quam  quod  ita  stabihs  est  mundus  atque 
ita  cohaeret,  ad  pei-manendum  ut  nihil  ne  excogi- 
tari  quidem  possit  aptius,  Omnes  enim  partes  eius 
undique  medium  locum  capessentes  nituntur  aequa- 
hter.  Maxime  autem  corpora  inter  se  iuncta  per- 
manent  cum  quasi  quodam  vinculo  circumdato  colh- 
gantur ;  quod  facit  ea  natura  quae  per  omnem 
mundum  omnia  mente  et  ratione  conficiens  funditur 

116  et  ad  medium  rapit  et  convertit  extrema.  Quocirca 
si  mundus  globosus  est  ob  eamque  causam  omnes 
eius  partes  undique  aequabiles  ipsae  per  se  atque 
inter  se  continentur,  contingere  idem  terrae  necesse 
est,  ut  omnibus  eius  partibus  in  medium  vergentibus 
(id  autem  medium  infimum  in  sphaera  est)  nihil 
interrumpat  quo  labefactari  possit  tanta  contentio 
gravitatis  et  ponderum.  Eademque  ratione  mare, 
cum  supra  terram  sit,  medium  tamen  terrae  locum 
expetens   conglobatur   undique    aequabihter   neque 

117  redundat  umquam  neque  effunditur.  Huic  autem 
continens  aer  fertur  ille  quidem  levitate  subhmis,* 
sed  tamen  in  omnes  partes  se  ipse  fundit ;    itaque 


^  an  G,  aiat  cfitt. 
"  sublimis  i?,  suhlimi  cett.,  sublime  Orellu 


232 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xliv.— xlv. 

115  Can  any  sane  person  believe  that  all  this  array  of  stars 
and  this  vast  celestial  adornment  could  have  bcen 
created  out  of  atoms  rushing  to  and  fro  fortuitously 
and  at  random  ?  or  could  any  other  being  devoid  of 
intelligence  and  reason  have  created  them  ?  Not 
merely  did  their  creation  postulate  intelHgence,  but 
it  is  impossible  to  understand  their  nature  without 
intelligence  of  a  high  order. 

XLV.  "  But  not  only  are  these  things  marvellous,  The  worfd 
but  nothing  is  more  remarkable  than  the  stabihty  part.fheld 
and  coherence  of  the  world,  which  is  such  that  it  is  together 
impossible  even  to  imagine  anything  better  adapted  petaiforca. 
to  endure.     For  all  its  parts  in  every  direction  gravi- 
tate  with  a  uniform  pressure  towards  the  centre. 
Moreover  bodies  conjoined  maintain  their  union  most 
permanently  when  they  have  some  bond  encompass- 
ing  them  to  bind  them  together  ;  and  this  function  is 
fulfilled  by  that  rational  and  intelHgent  substance 
which  pervades  the  whole  world  as  the  efhcient  cause 
of  all  things  and  which  draws  and  collects  the  outer- 

116  most  particles  towards  the  centre.  Hence  if  the  world 
is  round  and  therefore  all  its  parts  are  held  together 
by  and  with  each  other  in  universal  equiUbrium,  the 
same  must  be  the  case  with  the  earth,  so  that  all  its 
parts  must  converge  towards  the  centre  (which  in  a 
sphere  is  the  lowest  point)  without  anything  to  break 
the  continuity  and  so  threaten  its  vast  complex  of 
gravitational  forces  and  masses  with  dissolution.  And 
on  the  same  principle  the  sea,  although  above  the 
earth,  nevertheless  seeks  the  earth's  centre  and  so  is 
massed  into  a  sphere  uniform  on  all  sides,  and  never 

117  floods  its  bounds  and  overflows.  Its  neighbour  the 
air  travels  upward  it  is  true  in  virtue  of  its  hghtness, 
but  at  the   same  time   spreads  horizontally  in   all 

233 


CICERO 

et  mari  continuatus  et  iunctus  est  et  natura  fertur  ad 
caelum,  cuius  tenuitate  et  calore  temperatus  vitalem 
et  salutarem  spiritum  praebet  animantibus.  Quem 
complexa  summa  pars  caeli,  quae  aetheria  dicitur,  et 
suum  retinet  ardorem  tenuem  et  nuUa  admixtione 
concretum  et  cum  aeris  extremitate  coniungitur. 
XLVI.  In  aethere  autem  astra  volvuntur,  quae  se 
et  nisu  suo  conglobata  continent  et  forma  ipsa 
figuraque  sua  momenta  sustentant ;  sunt  enim 
rotunda,  quibus  formis,  ut  ante  dixisse  videor, 
118  minime  noceri  potest.  Sunt  autem  stellae  natura 
flanmieae,  quocirca  terrae  maris  aquarum^  vaporibus 
aluntur  iis  qui  a  sole  ex  agris  tepefactis  et  ex  aquis 
excitantur ;  quibus  altae  renovataeque  stellae  atque 
omnis  aether  refundunt  eadem  et  rursum  trahunt 
indidem,  nihil  ut  fere  intereat  aut  admodum  paululum 
quod  astrorum  ignis  et  aetheris  flamma  consumit. 
Ex  quo  eventurum  nostri  putant  id  de  quo  Panaetium 
addubixare  dicebant,  ut  ad  extremum  omnis  mundus 
ignesceret,  cum  umore  consumpto  neque  terra  ali 
posset  nec  remearet  aer,  cuius  ortus  aqua  omni 
exhausta  esse  non  posset ;  ita  rehnqui  nihil  praeter 
ignem,   a   quo   rursum   animante   ac   deo  renovatio 

*  aquarumque  reliquarum  Probus^  Pldsherg. 

•  See  §  47. 
234 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xlv.— xlvi. 

directions  ;  and  thus  while  contiguous  and  conjoined 
vdih  the  sea  it  has  a  natural  tendency  to  rise  to  the 
sky,  and  by  receiving  an  admixture  of  the  sky's  tenu- 
ity  and  heat  furnishes  to  H\-ing  creatures  the  breath 
of  hfe  and  health.  The  air  is  enfolded  by  the  highest 
part  of  the  sky,  termed  the  ethereal  part ;  this  both 
retains  its  own  tenuous  warmth  uncongealed  by  any 
admixture  and  unites  with  the  outer  surface  of  the 
air.  XLVI.  In  the  aether  the  stars  revolve  in  their 
courses  ;  these  maintain  their  spherical  form  by  their 
ovm.  internal  gravitation,  and  also  sustain  their 
motions  by  ^irtue  of  their  very  shape  and  conforma- 
tion  ;  for  they  are  round,  and  this  is  the  shape,  as  I 
beheve  I  remarked  before,'*  that  is  least  capable  of 
118  recei-ving  injury.  But  the  stars  are  of  a  fiery  sub- 
stance,  and  for  this  reason  they  are  nourished  by  the 
vapours  of  the  earth,  the  sea  and  the  waters,  which 
are  raised  up  by  the  sun  out  of  the  fields  which  it 
warms  and  out  of  the  waters  ;  and  when  nourished 
and  renewed  by  these  vapours  the  stars  and  the  whcle 
aether  shed  them  back  again,  and  then  once  more 
draw  them  up  from  the  same  source,  with  the  loss  of 
none  of  their  matter,  or  only  of  an  extremely  small 
part  which  is  consumed  by  the  fire  of  the  stars  and 
the  flame  of  the  aether.  x\s  a  consequence  of  this,  me  cyciicai 
so  our  school  beheve,  though  it  used  to  be  said  that  ofth^/S^uJ 
Panaetius  questioned  the  doctrine,  there  will  ulti- 
mately  occur  a  conflagration  of  the  whole  world,  be- 
cause  when  the  moisture  has  been  used  up  neither 
can  the  earth  be  nourished  nor  vdW  the  air  continue 
to  flow,  being  unable  to  rise  upward  after  it  has  drunk 
up  all  the  water  ;  thus  nothing  \vi\\  remain  but  fire, 
by  which,  as  a  h\-ing  being  and  a  god,  once  again  a 
new  world  may  be  created  and  the  ordered  universe 

235 


CICERO 

119  mundi  fieret  atque  idem  ornatus  oreretur.  Nolo 
in  stellarum  ratione  multus  vobis  videri,  maxime- 
que  earum  quae  errare  dicuntur  ;  quarum  tantus 
est  concentus  ex  dissimillimis  motibus  ut,  cum 
summa  Saturni  refrigeret,  media  Martis  incendat, 
his  interiecta  lovis  inlustret  et  temperet  infraque 
Martem  duae  soli  oboediant,  ipse  sol  mundum 
omnem  sua  luce  compleat  ab  eoque  luna  inluminata 
graviditates  et  partus  adferat  maturitatesque  gi- 
gnendi.  Quae  copulatio  rerum  et  quasi  consentiens 
ad  mundi  incolumitatem  coagmentatio  naturae 
quem  non  movet,  hunc  horum  nihil  imiquam  reputa- 
visse  certo  scio. 

120  XLVII.  "  Age  ut  a  caelestibus  rebus  ad  terrestres 
veniamus,  quid  est  in  his  in  quo  non  naturae  ratio 
intellegentis  appareat  ?  Principio  eorum  quae  gi- 
gnuntur  e  terra  stirpes  et  stabilitatem  dant  iis 
quae  sustinent  et  e  terra  sucum  trahunt  quo  alantur 
ea  quae  radicibus  continentur  ;  obducunturque  libro 
aut  cortice  trunci  quo  sint  a  frigoribus  et  caloribus 
tutiores.  lam  vero  vites  sic  claviculis  adminicula 
tamq«am  manibus  adprehendunt  atque  ita  se 
erigunt  ut  animantes.  Quin  etiam  a  cauhbus,^ 
si  propter  sati  sint,  ut  a  pestiferis  et  nocentibus 
refugere  dicuntur  nec  eos  ulla  ex  parte  contingere. 

121  Animantium  vero  quanta  varietas  est,  quanta 
ad  eam  rem  vis  ut  in  suo  quaeque  genere  per- 
maneat  !  Quarum  aliae  coriis  tectae  sunt  ahae  villis 
vestitae    ahae    spinis    hirsutae ;     pluma    alias    alias 

^  caulibus    det.  i    caulibus   brassicis  A,   B,  a,    brassicae 
Plasberg. 

236 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xl^i.— xlvii. 

119  be  restored  as  before.     I  would  not  have  you  think  Co-operatioK 
that  I  dwell  too  long  upon  astronomy,  and  particu-  pianete. 
larly  upon  the  system  of  the  stars  called  planets  ; 

these  with  the  most  diverse  movements  work  in  such 
mutual  harmony  that  the  uppermost,  that  of  Saturn, 
has  a  coohng  influence,  the  middle  planet,  that  of 
Mars,  imparts  heat,  the  one  between  them,  that  of 
Jove,  gives  hght  and  a  moderate  warmth,  while  the 
two  beneath  Mars  obey  the  sun,  and  the  sun  itself 
fills  all  the  world  with  light,  and  also  illuminates  the 
moon,  which  is  the  source  of  conception  and  birth 
and  of  gro^vth  and  maturity.  If  any  man  is  not 
impressed  by  this  co-ordination  of  things  and  this 
harmonious  combination  of  nature  to  secure  the  pre^ 
servation  of  the  world,  I  know  for  certain  that  he  has 
never  given  any  consideration  to  these  matters. 

120  XLVII.  "  To  come  now  from  things  celestial  to  The  wonders 
things  terrestrial,  which  is  there  among  these  latter  ufe!^^^^  ^^ 
which  does  not  clearly  display  the  rational  design  of 

an  inteUigent  being  ?  In  the  first  place,  with  the 
vegetation  that  springs  from  the  earth,  the  stocks 
both  give  stability  to  the  parts  which  they  sustain 
and  draw  from  the  ground  the  sap  to  nourish  the 
parts  upheld  by  the  roots  ;  and  the  trunks  are  covered 
with  bark  or  rind,  the  better  to  protect  them  against 
cold  and  heat.  Again  the  vines  cUng  to  their  props 
with  their  tendrils  as  with  hands,  and  thus  raise  them- 
selves  erect  Hke  animals.  Nay  more,  it  is  said  that  if 
planted  near  cabbages  they  shun  them  hke  pestilential 
and  noxious  things,  and  will  not  touch  them  at  any  Thewonders 

121  point.     Again  what  a  variety  there  is  of  animals,  lifer^/t^ 
and  what  capacity  they  possess  of  persisting  true  to  ?or^fhe^'°° 
their  various  kinds  !      Some  of  them  are  protected  preservation 
by  hides,  others  are  clothed  with  fleeces,  others  bristle  hldiiidQai. 

237 


CICERO 

squama  \ademus  obductas,  alias  esse  cornibus  arma- 
tas,  alias  habere  efFugia  pinnarum.  Pastum  autem 
animantibus  large  et  copiose  natura  eum  qui  cuique 
aptus  erat  comparaiit.  Enumerare  possum  ad 
eum  pastum  capessendum  conficiendumque  quae 
sit  in  figuris  animantium  et  quam  sollers  subtilisque 
discriptio  partium  quamque  admirabilis  fabrica 
membrorum.  Omnia  enim,  quae  quidem  intus 
inclusa  sunt,  ita  nata  atque  ita  locata  sunt  ut  nihil 
eorum  supervacaneum  sit,  nihil  ad  vitam  retinendam 

122  non  necessarium.  Dedit  autem  eadem  natura  beluis 
et  sensum  et  appetitum,  ut  altero  conatum  haberent 
ad  naturales  pastus  capessendos,  altero  secemerent 
pestifera  a  salutaribus.  lam  vero  aUa  animalia  gra- 
diendo  aUa  serpendo  ad  pastum  accedunt,  aha  volando 
aha  nando,  cibumque  partim  oris  hiatu  et  dentibus 
ipsis  capessunt,  partim  unguium  tenacitate  arri- 
piunt,  partim  aduncitate  rostrorum,  alia  sugunt 
aha  carpunt  aha  vorant  aUa  mandunt.  Atque  etiam 
ahoriim  ea  est  humilitas  ut  cibum  terrestrem  rostris 

123  facile  contingant ;  quae  autem  altiora  sunt,  ut 
anseres  ut  cygni  ut  grues  ut  cameh,  adiuvantur 
proceritate  coUorum  ;  manus  etiam  data  elephanto 
est,  quia  propter  magnitudinem  corporis  difficiles 
aditus  habebat  ad  pastum.  XLVIII.  At  quibus  be- 
stiis  erat  is  cibus  ut  aUus^  generis  bestiis^  vesceren- 
tur,  aut  vires  natura  dedit  aut  celeritatem.     Data  est 

^  alius  det.  :  aliis. 
•  bestiis  dett. :  escis  J,  B  (animalis  generis  escis  ?  Plasberg), 

238 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  11.  xlvii.— xlviii. 

with  spines  ;  some  we  see  covered  with  feathers, 
some  Mith  scales,  some  armed  Mith  horns,  some 
equipped  with  wings  to  escape  their  foes.  Nature, 
however,  has  provided  -v^ith  bounteous  plenty  for 
each  species  of  animal  that  food  which  is  suited  to  it. 
I  might  show  in  detail  what  provision  has  been  made 
in  the  forms  of  the  animals  for  appropriating  and 
assimilating  this  food,  how  skilful  and  exact  is  the 
disposition  of  the  various  parts,  how  marvellous  the 
structure  of  the  hmbs.  For  all  the  organs,  at  least 
those  contained  within  the  body,  are  so  formed  and  so 
placed  that  none  of  them  is  superfluous  or  not  neces- 

22  sary  for  the  preservation  of  Hfe.  But  nature  has  also 
bestowed  upon  the  beasts  both  sensation  and  desire, 
the  one  to  arouse  in  them  the  impulse  to  appropriate 
their  natural  foods,  the  other  to  enable  them  to 
distinguish  things  harmful  from  things  wholesome. 
Again,  some  animals  approach  their  food  by  walking, 
some  by  crawling,  some  by  flying,  some  by  s^vimming  ; 
and  some  seize  their  nutriment  with  their  gaping 
mouth  and  ^\ith  the  teeth  themselves,  others  snatch 
it  in  the  grasp  of  their  claws,  others  with  their  curved 
beaks,  some  suck,  others  graze,  some  swallow  it 
whole,  others  chew  it.  Also  some  are  of  such  lowly 
stature  that  they  easily  reach  their  food  upon  the 

23  ground  ^\-ith  their  jaws  ;  whereas  the  taller  species, 
such  as  geese,  swans,  cranes  and  camels,  are  aided 
by  the  length  of  their  necks  ;  the  elephant  is 
even  provided  ^^ith  a  hand,  because  his  body  is  so 
large  that  it  was  difficult  for  him  to  reach  his  food. 
XLVIII.  Those  beasts  on  the  other  hand  whose 
mode  of  sustenance  was  to  feed  on  animals  of 
another  species  received  from  nature  the  gift  either 
of  strength  or  swiftness.      Upon  certain  creatures 

239 


CICEllO 

quibusdam  etiam  machinatio  quaedam  atque  soller- 
tia,  ut  in  araneolis  aliae  quasi  rete  texunt,  ut  si  quid 
inhaeserit  conficiant,  aliae  autem  ut^  .  .  .  ex  inopinato 
observant  et  si  quid  incidit  arripiunt  idque  con- 
sumunt.  Pina  vero  (sic  enim  Graece  dicitur)  duabus 
grandibus  patula  conchis  cum  parva  squilla  quasi 
societatem  coit  comparandi  cibi,  itaque  cum  piscicuh 
par\i  in  concham  hiantem  innataverunt,  tum  ad- 
monita  <a>*  squilla^  pina  morsu*  comprimit  conchas ; 
sic  dissimiUimis  bestioHs  communiter  cibus  quaeritur. 
124  In  quo  admirandum  est  congressune  ahquo  inter  se 
an  iam  inde  ab  ortu  natura  ipsa  congregatae  sint. 
Est  etiam  admiratio  non  nulla  in  bestiis  aquatihbus 
iis  quae  gignuntur  in  terra  :  veluti  crocodih  fluvia- 
tilesque  testudines  quaedamque  serpentes  ortae 
extra  aquam  simul  ac  primum  niti  possunt  aquam 
persequuntur.  Quin  etiam  anitum  ova  gaUinis 
saepe  supponimus,  e  quibus  pulh  orti  primo  aluntur 
ab  iis  ut  a  matribus  a  quibus  exclusi  fotique  sunt, 
deinde  eas  rehnquunt  et  efFugiunt  sequentes,  cum 
primum  aquam  quasi  naturalem  domum  \idere 
potuerunt :  tantam  ingenuit  animantibus  conser- 
van^i  sui  natura  custodiam.  XLIX.  Legi  etiam 
scriptum  esse  avem  quandam  quae  platalea  nomi- 
naretur  ;  eam  sibi  cibum  quaerere  advolantem  ad 
eas  avis  quae  se  in  mari  mergerent,  quae  cum  emer- 
sissent  piscemque  cepissent,  usque  eo  premere  earum 
capita  mordicus  dum  ihae  captum  amitterent,  in  quod 

^  ut  om,  det.  :  lacunam  mdicavit  Mayor. 
■  <a>  add.  det.  '  squillae  ed.  vet. 

*  morsus  mss.  :  squillae  morsu  pina  Heindorf. 

*  A  variant  gives  "  the  shrimp  draws  the  attention  of  the 
iiiussel  by  giving:  it  a  nip,  and  the  mussel  shuts  up  its  shells." 
"  Aristotle,  Hi;it.  An.  ix.  10. 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xlviii.— xlix. 

there  was  bestowed  even  a  sort  of  craft  or  cun- 
ning  :  for  instance,  one  species  of  the  spider  tribe 
weaves  a  kind  of  net,  in  order  to  dispatch  anything 
that  is  caught  in  it  ;  another  in  order  to  .  .  . 
stealthily  keeps  watch,  and,  snatching  anything  that 
falls  into  it,  devours  it.  The  mussel,  or  pina  as  it  is 
called  in  Greek,  is  a  large  bivalve  which  enters  into 
a  sort  of  partnership  with  the  tiny  shrimp  to  procure 
food,  and  so,  when  little  fishes  swim  into  the  gaping 
shell.  the  shrimp  draws  the  attention  of  the  mussel 
and  the  mussel  shuts  up  its  shells  with  a  snap  "  ;  thus 
two  very  dissimilar  creatures  obtain  their  food  in 
124  common.  In  this  case  we  are  curious  to  know  whether 
their  association  is  due  to  a  sort  of  mutual  compact,  or 
whether  it  was  brought  about  by  nature  herself  and 
goes  back  to  the  moment  of  their  birth.  Our  wonder 
is  also  considerably  excited  by  those  aquatic  animals 
which  are  born  on  land — crocodiles,  for  instance,  and 
water-tortoises  and  certain  snakes,  Mhich  are  born 
on  dry  land  but  as  soon  as  they  can  first  crawl  make 
for  the  water.  Again  we  often  place  ducks'  eggs 
beneath  hens,  and  the  chicks  that  spring  from  the 
eggs  are  at  first  fed  and  mothered  by  the  hens  that 
hatched  and  reared  them,  but  later  on  they  leave 
their  foster-mothers,  and  run  away  when  they  pursue 
them,  as  soon  as  they  have  had  an  opportunity  of 
seeing  the  water,  their  natural  home.  So  powerful 
an  instinct  of  self-preservation  has  nature  implanted 
in  living  creatures.  XLIX.  I  have  even  read  in  a 
book  ^  that  there  is  a  bird  called  the  spoonbill,  which 
procures  its  food  by  flying  after  those  birds  which 
dive  in  the  sea,  and  upon  their  coming  to  the  surface 
with  a  fish  that  they  have  caught,  pressing  their  heads 
down  with  its  beak  until  they  drop  their  prey,  which 

241 


CICERO 

ipsa  invaderet.  Eademque  haec  avis  scribitur  con- 
chis  se  solere  complere  easque  cum  stomachi  calore 
concoxerit  evomere,  atque  ita  eligere  ex  iis  quae  sunt^ 

125  esculenta.  Ranae  autem  marinae  dicuntur  obruere 
sese  harena  solere  et  moveri  prope  aquam,  ad  quas 
quasi  ad  escam  pisces  cum  accesserint  confici  a  ranis 
atque  consumi.  Miluo  est  quoddam  bellum  quasi 
naturale  cum  corvo  ;  ergo  alter  alterius  ubicumque 
nanctus  est  ova  frangit.  Illud  vero  (ab  Aristotele 
animadversum  a  quo  pleraque)  quis  potest  non 
mirari,  grues  cum  loca  calidiora  petentes  maria 
transmittant  trianguH  efficere  formam  ?  eius  autem 
summo  angulo  aer  ab  iis  adversus  pelhtur,  deinde 
sensim  ab  utroque  latere  tamquam  remis  ita  pinnis 
cursus  a\aum  levatur ;  basis  autem  trianguh,  quem^ 
efficiunt  grues,  ea  tamquam  a  puppi  ventis  adiuvatur  ; 
eaeque  in  tergo  praevolantium  colla  et  capita 
reponunt ;  quod  quia  ipse  dux  facere  non  potest, 
quia  noh  habet  ubi  nitatur,  revolat  ut  ipse  quoque 
quiescat,  in  eius  locum  succedit  ex  iis  quae  adquie- 
runt,  eaque  vicissitudo  in  omni  cursu  conservatur. 

126  Multa  eius  modi  proferre  possum,  sed  genus  ipsum 
videtis.  lam  vero  illa  etiam  notiora,  quanto  se  opere 
custodiant  bestiae,  ut  in  pastu  circumspectent,  ut  in 
cubiUbus  dehtiscant.  L.  Atque  illa  mirabiha, 
quod — ea   quae   nuper,  id   est  paucis  ante   saecHs,^ 

^  sint  Ernesti. 
*  quem  dett.  :  quam.  ^  id  .  .  .  saeclis  secl.  Cohet. 

"  Cicero  seems  to  have  omitted  or  misunderstood  some- 
thing  in  Aristotle ;  the  passage  quoted  is  not  in  his  extant 
works.  Pliny,  N.H.  x.  63,  tells  the  same  thing  of  wild 
geese  and  swans,  saying  a  tergo  sensim  dilatante  se  cuneo 
fiorrigitur  agmen,  '  the  column  widens  out  at  the  rear  with 
the  gradual  broadening  of  the  wedge.' 
242 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  xlix.— 1. 

it  poiinces  on  for  itself.  It  is  also  recorded  of  this  bird 
that  it  is  in  the  habit  of  gorging  itself  with  shell-fish, 
which  it  digests  by  means  of  the  heat  of  its  stomach 
and  then  brings  up  again,  and  so  picks  out  from  them 

125  the  parts  that  are  good  to  eat.  Sea-frogs  again  are 
said  to  be  in  the  habit  of  covering  themselves  with 
sand  and  creeping  along  at  the  water's  edge,  and 
then  when  fishes  approach  them  thinking  they  are 
something  to  eat,  these  are  killed  and  devoured  by 
the  frogs.  The  kite  and  the  crow  live  in  a  state  of 
natural  war  as  it  were  with  one  another,  and  there- 
fore  each  destroys  the  other's  eggs  wherever  it  finds 
them.  Another  fact  (observed  by  Aristotle,  from 
whom  most  of  these  cases  are  cited)  cannot  but 
awaken  our  surprise,  namely  that  cranes  when  cross- 
ing  the  seas  on  the  way  to  warmer  cHmates  fly  in  a 
triangular  formation.  With  the  apex  of  the  triangle 
they  force  aside  the  air  in  front  of  them,  and  then 
gradually  on  either  side  ^  by  means  of  their  ^vings 
acting  as  oars  the  birds'  onward  flight  is  sustained, 
while  the  base  of  the  triangle  formed  by  the  cranes 
gets  the  assistance  of  the  wind  when  it  is  so  to  speak 
astern.  The  birds  rest  their  necks  and  heads  on  the 
backs  of  those  flying  in  front  of  them  ;  and  the  leader, 
being  himself  unable  to  do  this  as  he  has  no  one  to  lean 
on,  flies  to  the  rear  that  he  himself  also  may  have  a 
rest,  while  one  of  those  already  rested  takes  his  place, 

126  and  so  they  keep  turns  throughout  the  journey.  I 
could  adduce  a  number  of  similar  instances,  but  you 
see  the  general  idea.  Another  evenbetterknownclass 
of  stories  illustrates  the  precautions  taken  by  animals 
for  their  security,  the  watch  they  keep  while  feeding, 
their  skill  in  hiding  in  their  lairs.  L.  Other 
remarkable  facts  are  that  dogs  cure  themselves  by 

243 


CICERO 

medicorum  ingeniis  reperta  sunt — vomitione  canes, 
purgando^  autem  alvo  se  ibes^  Aegyptiae  curant. 
Auditum  est  pantheras,  quae  in  barbaria  venenata 
carne  caperentur,  remedium  quoddam  habere  quo 
cum  essent  usae  non  morerentur,  capras  autem  in 
Creta  feras,  cum  essent  confixae  venenatis  sagittis, 
herbam  quaerere  quae  dictamnus  vocaretur,  quam 
cum  gustavissent  sagittas  excidere  dicunt  e  corpore. 

127  Cervaeque  paulo  ante  partum  perpurgant  se  quadam 
herbula  quae  seselis  dicitur.  lam  illa  cernimus,  ut 
contra  vim  et  metum  suis  se  armis  quaeque  de- 
fendant  cornibus  tauri,  apri  dentibus,  morsu  leones  ; 
aliae  fuga  se  aliae  occultatione  tutantur,  atramenti 
effusione  sepiae  torpore  torpedines,  multae  etiam  in- 
sectantis  odoris  intolerabili  foeditate  depellunt. 

LI.  "  Ut  vero  perpetuus  mundi  esset  ornatus,  magna 
adhibita  cura  est  a  providentia  deorum  ut  semper 
essent  et  bestiarum  genera  et  arborum  omnium- 
que  rerum  quae  a  terra  stirpibus  continerentur.  Quae 
quidem  omnia  eam  vim  seminis  habent  in  se  ut  ex 
uno  plura  generentur,  idque  semen  inclusum  est  in 
intuYna  parte  earum  bacarum  quae  ex  quaque  stirpe 
funduntur  ;  isdemque  seminibus  et  homines  adfatim 
vescuntur  et  terrae  eiusdem  generis  stirpium  renova- 

128  tione  conplentur.  Quid  loquar  quanta  ratio  in  be- 
stiis  ad  perpetuam  conservationem  earum  generis 
appareat  ?  Nam  primum  ahae  mares  ahae  feminae 
sunt,  quod  perpetuitatis  causa  machinata  natura  est, 

*  purgando  Plasherg  :   purgante,  purgantes  M88. 

•  alvo  sibis  etc.  mss.  :  purgantes  autem  alvos  ibes  Ae- 
gyi>liae  curantur  Madvig, 

244 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  1.— li. 

vomiting  and  ibises  in  Egypt  by  purging — modes  of 
treatment  only  recently,  that  is,  a  few  generations 
ago,  discovered  by  the  talent  of  the  medical  profes- 
sion.  It  has  been  reported  that  panthers,  which  in 
foreign  countries  are  caught  by  means  of  poisoned 
meat,  have  a  remedy  which  they  employ  to  save 
themselves  from  dying  ;  and  that  ^^ild  goats  in  Crete, 
when  pierced  with  poisoned  arrows,  seek  a  herb 
called    dittany,    and    on    their    swallowing    this    the 

27  arrows,  it  is  said,  drop  out  of  their  bodies.  Does, 
shortly  before  giving  birth  to  their  young,  thoroughly 
purge  themselves  with  a  herb  called  hartwort. 
Again  we  observe  how  various  species  defend  them- 
selves  against  violence  and  danger  with  their  own 
weapons,  bulls  with  their  horns,  boars  ^vith  their 
tusks,  hons  ^^ith  their  bite  ;  some  species  protect 
themselves  by  flight,  some  by  hiding,  the  cuttle-fish 
by  emitting  an  inky  fluid,  the  sting-ray  by  causing 
cramp,  and  also  a  number  of  creatures  drive  away 
their  pursuers  by  their  insufferably  disgusting  odour. 

LI.  "  In  order  to  secure  the  everlasting  duration  ihe 
of  the  world-order,  divine  providence  has  made  most  a^^ai^tation 
careiul  provision  to  ensure  the  perpetuation  oi  the  aud  animai 
famihes  of  animals  and  of  trees  and  all  the  vegetable  for  the  per- 
species.     The  latter   all  contain  within   them   seed  petuation 
possessing  the  property  of  multiplying  the  species  ;  °  ^^^^^^- 
this  seed  is  enclosed  in  the  innermost  part  of  the 
fruits  that  grow  from  each  plant  ;  and  the  same  seeds 
supply  mankind  v,-iih  an  abundance  of  food,  besides 
replenishing  the  earth  with  a  fresh  stock  of  plants  of 

28  the  same  kind.  Why  should  I  speak  of  the  amount 
of  rational  design  displayed  in  animals  to  secure  the 
perpetual  preservation  of  their  kind  ?  To  begin  with 
some  are  male  and  some  female,  a  device  of  nature 

245 


CICERO 

deinde  partes  corporis  et  ad  procreandum  et  ad  con- 
cipiendum  aptissimae,  et  in  mare  et  in  femina  com- 
miscendorum  corporum  mirae  libidines.  Cum  autem 
in  locis  semen  insedit,  rapit  omnem  fere  cibum  ad 
sese  eoque  saeptum^  fingit  animal ;  quod  cum  ex 
utero  elapsum  excidit,  in  iis  animantibus  quae  lacte 
aluntur  omnis  fere  cibus  matrum  lactescere  incipit, 
eaque  quae  paulo  ante  nata  sunt  sine  magistro  duce 
natura  mammas  appetunt  earumque  ubertate  satu- 
rantur.  Atque  ut  intellegamus  nihil  horum  esse  for- 
tuitum  et  haec  omnia  esse  opera  providae  sollertisque 
naturae,  quae  multiplices  fetus  procreant,  ut  sues  ut 
canes,  iis  mammarum  data  est  multitudo,  quas  eas- 
dem  paucas  habent  eae  bestiae  quae  pauca  gignunt. 
129  Quid  dicam  quantus  amor  bestiarum  sit  in  educandis 
custodiendisque  iis  quae  procreaverunt,  usque  ad  eum 
finem  dum  possint  se  ipsa  defendere  ?  etsi  pisces,  ut 
aiunt,  ova  cum  genuerunt  rehnquunt,  facile  enim  illa 
aqua  et  sustinentur  et  fetum  fundunt.  LII.  Testu- 
dines  autem  et  crocodilos  dicunt,  cum  in  terra  partum 
ediderint,  obruere  ova,  deinde  discedere  ;  ita  et 
nascuntur  et  educantur  ipsa  per  sese.  lam  gaUinae 
avesque  reliquae  et  quietum  requirunt  ad  pariendum 
locum  et  cubilia  sibi  nidosque  construunt  eosque  quam 
possunt  mollissume  substernunt,  ut  quam  facillume 
ova  serventur  ;  e  quibus  puUos  cum  excuderunt,  ita 
tuentur  ut  et  pinnis  foveant  ne  frigore  laedantur  et 

^  ex  eoque  conceptum  {vel  coeptum)  ?  Mayor. 

"  Perhaps  the    text  should   be  emended  to  give,    *and 
fashions  a  living  creature  conceived  therefrom.* 
246 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  li.— lii. 

to  perpctuate  the  species.  Then  parts  of  their  bodies 
are  most  skilfully  contrived  to  serve  the  purposes  of 
procreation  and  of  conception,  and  both  male  and 
female  possess  marvellous  desires  for  copulation. 
And  when  the  seed  has  settled  in  its  place,  it  draws 
ahiiost  all  the  nutriment  to  itself  and  hedged  within 
it  fashions  a  h\-ing  creature  ^ ;  w^hen  this  has  been 
dropped  from  the  womb  and  has  emerged,  in 
the  mammahan  species  ahnost  all  the  nourishment 
received  by  the  mother  turns  to  milk,  and  the  young 
just  born,  untaught  and  by  nature's  guidance,  seek 
for  the  teats  and  satisfy  their  cra^ings  \\ith  their 
bounty.  And  to  show  to  us  that  none  of  these  things 
merely  happens  by  chance  and  that  all  are  the  work 
of  nature's  providence  and  skill,  species  that  produce 
large  Htters  of  offspring,  such  as  swine  and  dogs,  have 
bestowed  upon  them  a  large  number  of  teats,  while 
those  animals  which  bear  only  a  few  young  have  only 
29  a  few  teats.  Why  should  I  describe  the  affection 
shown  by  animals  in  rearing  and  protecting  the  ofF- 
spring  to  which  they  have  given  birth,  up  to  the  point 
when  they  are  able  to  defend  themselves  ?  although 
fishes,  it  is  said,  abandon  their  eggs  when  they  have 
laid  them,  since  these  easily  float  and  hatch  out  in 
the  water.  LII.  Turtles  and  crocodiles  are  said  to 
lay  their  eggs  on  land  and  bury  them  and  then  go 
away,  leaving  their  young  to  hatch  and  rear  them- 
selves.  Hens  and  other  birds  find  a  quiet  place  in 
which  to  lay,  and  build  themselves  nests  to  sit  on, 
covering  these  with  the  softest  possible  bedding  in 
order  to  preserve  the  eggs  most  easily  ;  and  when 
they  have  hatched  out  their  chicks  they  protect  them 
by  cherishing  them  with  their  wings  so  that  they 
may  not  be  injured  by  cold,  and  by  shading  them 

247 


CICERO 

si  est  calor  a  sole  se  opponant.     Cum  autem  pulli 
pinnulis    uti    possunt,    tum    volatus    eorum    matres 

130  prosequuntur,  reliqua  cura  liberantur.  Accedit  ad 
non  nullorum  animantium  et  earum  rerum  quas  terra 
gignit  conservationem  et  salutem  hominum  etiam 
sollertia  et  diligentia.  Nam  multae  et  pecudes  et 
stirpes  sunt  quae  sine  procuratione  hominum  salvae 
esse  non  possunt. 

"  Magnae  etiam  opportunitates  ad  cultum  homi- 
num  atque  abundantiam  ahae  aliis  in  locis  reperiun- 
tur.  Aegvptum  Nilus  inrigat  et,  cum  tota  aestate 
obrutam  oppletamque  tenuit,  tum  recedit  moUitos- 
que  et  oblimatos  agros  ad  serendum  rehnquit. 
Mesopotamiam  fertilem  efhcit  Euphrates,  in  quam 
quotannis^  quasi  novos  agros  invehit.  Indus  vero, 
qui  est  omnium  fluminum  maximus,  non  aqua  solum 
agros laetificat  et  mitigat  sed  eos  etiam  conserit ;  mag- 
nam   enim  vim  seminum    secum    frumenti  simihum 

131  dicitur  deportare.  Multaque  aha  in  ahis  locis  com- 
memorabilia  proferre  possum,  multos  fertiles  agros 
ahos  ahorum  fructuum.  LIII.  Sed  iha  quanta 
benignitas  naturae,  quod  tam  multa  ad  vescendum, 
tam  varia  et  tam  iucunda  gignit,  neque  ea  uno 
tempore  anni,  ut  semper  et  novitate  delectemur 
et  copia  !  Quam  tempestivos  autem  dedit,  quam 
salutares  non  modo  hominum  sed  etiam  pecudum 
generi,  iis  denique  omnibus  quae  oriuntur  e  terra, 
ventos  Etesias  !  quorum  flatu  nimii  temperantur 
calores,  ab  isdem  etiam  maritimi  cursus  celeres  et 
certi    deriguntur.     MuUa    praetereunda    sunt     [et 

^  quotannis  Rom.  :   quod  annos,  quot  annos  mss. 

°  Trade-winds    hlowing   periodically    (Iroy,  '  year ')   from 
N.-W.  and  otlier  quarters. 
248 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  lii.— liii. 

against  the  heat  of  the  sun.  When  the  young  birds 
are  able  to  use  their  sprouting  wings,  their  mothers 
escort  them  in  their  flights,  but  are  released  from  any 

30  further  tendance  upon  them.  Moreover  the  skill  and 
industry  of  man  also  contribute  to  the  preservation 
and  security  of  certain  animals  and  plants.  For  there 
are  many  species  of  both  which  could  not  survive 
without  man's  care. 

"  Also  a  plentiful  variety  of  conveniences  is  found  The  adapta- 
in  different  regions  for  the  productive  cultivation  of  J'°jjj.°^^j 
the  soil  by  man.     Egypt  is  watered  by  the   Nile,  nature 
which   keeps   the   land   completely   flooded   all   the  pTeseAation 
summer  and  afterwards  retires  leaving  the  soil  soft  ^^'^     . 

CODVCDIGDCG 

and  covered  with  mud,  in  readiness  for  sowing.  ofman. 
Mcsopotamia  is  fertihzed  by  the  Euphrates,  which  as 
it  were  imports  into  it  new  fields  every  year.  The 
Indus,  the  largest  river  in  the  world,  not  only  manures 
and  softens  the  soil  but  actually  sows  it  with  seed,  for 
it  is  said  to  bring  down  with  it  a  great  quantity  of  seeds 

31  resembhng  corn.  And  I  could  produce  a  number  of 
other  remarkable  examples  in  a  variety  of  places,  and 
instance  a  variety  of  lands  each  proUfic  in  a  different 
kind  of  produce.  LIII.  But  how  great  is  the  benevo- 
lence  of  nature,  in  giving  birth  to  such  an  abundance 
and  variety  of  dehcious  articles  of  food,  and  that  not 
at  one  season  only  of  the  year,  so  that  we  have  con- 
tinually  the  dehghts  of  both  novelty  and  plenty  ! 
How  seasonable  moreover  and  how  wholesome  not 
for  the  human  race  alone  but  also  for  the  animal 
and  the  various  vegetable  species  is  her  gift  of  the 
Etesian  winds  "  !  their  breath  modcrates  the  excessive 
heat  of  summer,  and  they  also  guide  our  ships  across 
the  sea  upon  a  s^vift  and  steady  course.  Many  in- 
stances  must  be  passed  over  [and   yet  many    are 

249 


CICERO 

132  tamen  multa  dicuntur].^  Enumerari  enim  non 
possunt  fluminum  opportunitates,  aestus  maritimi 
multumt^  aecedentes  et  recedentes,  montes  vestiti 
atque  silvestres,  salinae  ab  ora  maritima  remo- 
tissimae,  medicamentorum  salutarium  plenissimae 
terrae,  artes^  denique  innumerabiles  ad  victum  et  ad 
vitam  necessariae.  lam  diei  noctisque  ^ncissitudo 
conservat  animantes  tribuens  aliud  agendi  tempus 
aliud  quiescendi.  Sic  undique  omni  ratione  con- 
cluditur  mente  consilioque  divino  omnia  in  hoc  mundo 
ad  salutem  omnium  conservationemque  admirabiliter 
administrari. 

133  "  Hic*  quaeret  quispiam,  cuiusnam  causa  tantarum 
rerum  molitio  facta  sit  ?  Arborumne  et  herbarum, 
quae  quamquam  sine  sensu  sunt  tamen  a  natura  sus- 
tinentur  ?  At  id  quidem  absurdum  est.  An  bestia- 
rum  ?  Nihilo  probabilius  deos  mutorum^  et  nihil 
intellegentium  causa  tantum  laborasse.  Quorum 
igitur  causa  quis  dixerit  efFectum  esse  mundum  ? 
Eorum  scilicet  animantium  quae  ratione  utuntur  ; 
hi  sunt  di  et  homines,  quibus  profecto  nihil  est 
melius,  ratio  est  enim  quae  praestet  omnibus.  Ita 
fit  credibile  deorurn  et  hominum  causa  factum  esse 
mundum  quaeque  in  eo  [mundo]^  sint  omnia. 

LIV.  **  Faciliusque  intellegetur  a  dis  inmortalibus 
hominibus  esse  provisum  si  erit  tota  hominis  fabricatio 
perspecta  omnisque  humanae  naturae  figura  atque 

^  secl.  Miiller. 

*  multumt :  <si>mulcum  <luna>  P/as6(?r^  (cum  luna  simul 
Alan).  3  utilitates  Koch. 

*  hic  dett.,  sin  A^  B.  ^  mutorum  Davies:  mutarum. 

*  [mundo]  edd.,  om.  E,  L,  O. 

"  Probably  an  interpolated  note. 
250 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  liii.— liv. 

2  given]."  For  it  is  impossible  to  recount  the  conveni- 
ences  afforded  by  rivers,  the  ebb  and  flow  *  .  .  .  of  the 
tides  of  the  sea,  the  mountains  clothed  with  forests, 
the  salt-beds  lying  far  inland  from  the  sea-coast,  the 
copious  stores  of  health-giving  medicines  that  the 
earth  contains,  and  all  the  countless  arts  necessary 
for  Uvehhood  and  for  hfe.  Again  the  alternation  of 
day  and  night  contributes  to  the  preservation  of 
hving  creatures  by  affording  one  time  for  activity  and 
another  for  repose.  Thus  every  hne  of  reasoning  goes 
to  prove  that  all  things  in  this  world  of  ours  are  mar- 
vellously  governed  by  divine  intelhgence  and  wdsdom 
for  the  safety  and  preservation  of  all. 

3  "  Here  somebody  will  ask,  for  whose  sake  was  all 
this  vast  system  contrived  ?  For  the  sake  of  the  trees 
and  plants,  for  these,  though  without  sensation,  have 
their  sustenance  from  nature  ?  But  this  at  any  rate 
is  absurd.  Then  for  the  sake  of  the  animals  ?  It  is 
no  more  hkely  that  the  gods  took  all  this  trouble  for 
the  sake  of  dumb,  irrational  creatures.  For  whose 
sake  then  shall  one  pronounce  the  world  to  have  been 
created  ?  Doubtless  for  the  sake  of  those  hving 
beings  which  have  the  use  of  reason  ;  these  are  the 
gods  and  mankind,  who  assuredly  surpass  all  other 
things  in  excellence,  since  the  most  excellent  of  all 
things  is  reason.  Thus  we  are  led  to  beheve  that  the 
world  and  all  the  things  that  it  contains  were  made 
for  the  sake  of  gods  and  men. 

LIV.  "  And  that  man  has  been  cared  for  by  divine  Thehand  of 
pro^ddence  ^vill  be  more  readily  understood  if  we  seen  inThe 
survey  the  whole  structure  of  man  and  all  the  con-  stnicture 

4  formation  and  perfection  of  human  nature.  There  are  of  man: 

*  The  text  may  have  been  corrupted,  and  may  have  run 
*  ebb  and  flow  with  the  moon.' 

251 


CICERO 

134  perfectio.  Nam  cum  tribus  rebus  animantium  vita 
teneatur,  cibo  potione  spiritu,  ad  haec  omnia  per- 
cipienda  os  est  aptissimum,  quod  adiunctis  naribus 
spiritu  augetur.  Dentibus  autem  in  ore  constructis 
manditur^  atque  ab  iis^  extenuatur  et  mollitur  cibus. 
Eorum  adversi  acuti  morsu  di\adunt  escas,  intimi 
autem  conficiunt  qui  genuini  vocantur,  quae  confectio 

135  etiam  a  lingua  adiuvari  videtur.  Linguam  autem  ad 
radices  eius  haerens  excipit  stomachus,  quo  primum 
inlabuntur  ea  quae  accepta  sunt  ore.  Is  utraque  ex 
parte  tosillas  attingens  palato  extremo  atque  intimo 
terminatur.  Atque  is  agitatione  et  motibus  hnguae 
cum  depulsum  et  quasi  detrusum  cibum  accepit, 
depeUit  :  ipsius  autem  partes  eae  quae  sunt  infra 
quam  id  quod  devoratur  dilatantur,  quae  autem  supra 

136  contrahuntur.  Sed  cum  aspera  arteria — sic  enim 
a  medicis  appellatur — ostium  habeat  adiunctum 
Hnguae  radicibus  paulo  supra  quam  ad  Hnguam 
stomachus  adnectitur,  eaque  ad  pulmones  usque 
pertineat  excipiatque  animam  eam  quae  ducta  est 
spiritu,  eandemque  a  pulmonibus  respiret  et  reddat, 
tegitur  quodam  quasi  operculo,  quod  ob  eam  causam 
datum  est  ne  si  quid  in  eam  cibi  forte  incidisset 
spiritus  impediretur.  Sed  cum  alvi  natura  subiecta 
stomacho  cibi  et  potionis  sit  receptaculum,  pulmones 
autem  et  cor  extrinsecus  spiritum  ducant,  in  alvo 
multa  sunt  mirabihter  eifecta,  quae  constat  fere  e 

*  mandatur  ci.  Alan.  *  ab  iis  secl.  Baiter. 

*•  A  plausible  emendation  of  the  text  gives  '  Within  the 
mouth  is  the  structure  of  the  teeth,  to  which  the  food  is 
handed  over  {mandatur)  and  by  which  it  is  divided  up  and 
softened.' 

^  The  Greek   tracheia  arteria,  '  rough  artery '  (air-ducta 
and  blood-vessels  not  being  distinguished). 
252 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM.  II.  liv. 

three  things  requisite  for  the  maintenance  of  aninial  provision 
Hfe,  food,  drink  and  breath  ;   and  for  the  reception  of  support  of 
all  of  these  the  mouth  is  most  consummately  adapted,  |.0Q(j'^^Q(f^ 
receiving  as  it  does  an  abundant  supply  of  breath  air ; 
through    the    nostrils    which    communicate    with   it. 
The  structure  of  the  teeth  within  the  mouth  serves 
to  chew  the  food,  and  it  is  divided  up  and  softened  by 
them.°    The  front  teeth  are  sharp,  and  bite  our  viands 
into  pieces  ;  the  back  teeth,  called  molars,  masticate 
them,  the  process  of  mastication  apparently  being 

\5  assisted  also  by  the  tongue.  Next  to  the  tongue 
comes  the  gullet,  which  is  attached  to  its  roots,  and 
into  which  in  the  first  place  pass  the  substances 
that  have  been  received  in  the  mouth.  The  guUet  is 
adjacent  to  the  tonsils  on  either  side  of  it,  and  reaches 
as  far  as  the  back  or  innei-most  part  of  the  palate. 
The  action  and  movements  of  the  tongue  drive  and 
thrust  the  food  down  into  the  gullet,  which  receives 
it  and  drives  it  further  down,  the  parts  of  the  gullet 
below  the  food  that  is  being  swallowed  dilating  and 

}6  the  parts  above  it  contracting.  The  windpipe,  or 
trachea  ^  as  it  is  termed  by  physicians,  has  an  orifice 
attached  to  the  roots  of  the  tongue  a  little  above  the 
point  where  the  tongue  is  joined  to  the  gullet ;  it 
reaches  to  the  lungs,  and  receives  the  air  inhaled  by 
breathing,  and  also  exhales  it  and  passes  it  out  from 
the  lungs  ;  it  is  covered  by  a  sort  of  hd,  provided  for 
the  purpose  of  preventing  a  morsel  of  food  from 
accidentally  falling  into  it  and  impeding  the  breath. 
Below  the  gullet  lies  the  stomach,  which  is  constructed 
as  the  receptacle  of  food  and  drink,  whereas  breath 
is  inhaled  by  the  lungs  and  heart.  The  stomach  per- 
forms  a  number  of  remarkable  operations  ;  its  struc- 
ture  consists  principally  of  muscular  fibres,  and  it  is 
K  253 


CICERO 

nervis,  est  autem  multiplex  et  tortuosa,  arcetque  et 
continet  sive  illud  aridum  est  sive  umidum  quod 
recepit,  ut  id  mutari  et  concoqui  possit,  eaque  tum 
astringitur  tum  relaxatur,  atque  omne  quod  accepit 
cogit  et  confundit,  ut  facile  et  calore,  quem  multum 
habet,  et  terendo  cibo  et  praeterea  spiritu  omnia 
cocta  atque  confecta  in  reliquum  corpus  dividantur. 
LV.  In  pulmonibus  autem  inest  raritas  quaedam  et 
adsitnilis  spongiis  mollitudo  ad  hauriendum  spiritum 
aptissima,  qui  tum  se  contrahunt  adspirantes,  tum 
in  respiratu  dilatantur,  ut  frequenter  ducatur  cibus 

137  animaUs  quo  maxime  aluntur  animantes.  Ex  inte- 
stinis  autem  alvo^  secretus  a  rehquo  cibo  sucus  is  quo 
ahmur  permanat  ad  iecur  per  quasdam  a  medio  in- 
testino  usque  ad  portas  iecoris  (sic  enim  appellantur) 
ductas  et  derectas  vias,  quae  pertinent  ad  iecur  eique 
adhaerent ;  atque  inde  ahae  <aHo>2  pertinentes  sunt, 
per  quas  cadit  cibus  a  iecore  dilapsus.  Ab  eo  cibo 
cum  est  secreta  biUs  eique  umores  qui  e  renibus  pro- 
funduntur,  rehqua  se  in  sanguinem  vertunt  ad  eas- 
demque  portas  iecoris  confluunt,  ad  quas  omnes  eius 
viae  pertinent ;  per  quas  lapsus  cibus  in  hoc  ipso  loco 
in  eam  venam  quae  cava  appellatur  confunditur  per- 
que  eam  ad  cor  confectus  iam  coctusque^  perlabitur ; 
a  corde  autem  in  totum  corpus  distribuitur  per  venas 
admodum  multas  in  omnes  partes  corporis  pertinentes. 

138  Quem  ad  modum  autem  rehquiae  cibi  depellantur 
tum  astringentibus  se  intestinis  tum  relaxantibus, 

^  alvo  om.  dett.  ^  Ueindorf:  <ad  renes>  Jscemsius. 

'  Ascensius :  coactusque  mss.,  concoctusque  Madvig. 

<*  The  phleps  koile,  the  great  trunk  vein. 
254 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  liv.— Iv. 

manifold  and  twisted  ;  it  compresses  and  contains 
the  dry  or  moist  nutriment  that  it  receives,  enabling 
it  to  be  assimilated  and  digested  ;  at  one  moment  it 
is  astricted  and  at  another  relaxed,  thus  pressing  and 
mixing  together  all  that  is  passed  into  it,  so  that  by 
means  of  the  abundant  heat  which  it  possesses,  and  by 
its  crushing  the  food,  and  also  by  the  operation  of  the 
breath,  everything  is  digested  and  worked  up  so  as  to 
be  easily  distributed  throughout  the  rest  of  the  body. 
LV.  The  lungs  on  the  contrary  are  soft  and  of  a  loose 
and  spongy  consistency,  well  adapted  to  absorb  the 
breath  ;  which  they  inhale  and  exhale  by  altemately 
contracting  and  expanding,  to  provide  frequent 
draughts  of  that  aerial  nutriment  which  is  the  chief 

137  support  of  animal  Ufe.  The  ahmentary  juice  secreted 
from  the  rest  of  the  food  by  the  stomach  flows  from 
the  bowels  to  the  hver  through  certain  ducts  or 
channels  reaching  to  the  Hver,  to  w^hich  they  are 
attached,  and  connecting  up  what  are  called  the 
doorways  of  the  hver  with  the  middle  intestine. 
From  the  hver  different  channels  pass  in  difFerent 
directions,  and  through  these  falls  the  food  passed 
down  from  the  hver.  From  this  food  is  secreted  bile, 
and  the  hquids  excreted  by  the  kidneys  ;  the  residue 
turns  into  blood  and  flows  to  the  aforesaid  doorways 
of  the  hver,  to  which  all  its  channels  lead.  Flowing 
through  these  doorways  the  food  at  this  very  point 
pours  into  the  so-called  vena  cava  or  hollow  vein,**  and 
through  this,  being  now  completely  worked  up  and 
digested,  flows  to  the  heart,  and  from  the  heart  is 
distributed  all  over  the  body  through  a  rather  large 
number  of  veins  that  reach  to  every  part  of  the  frame. 

138  It  would  not  be  difficult  to  indicate  the  way  in  which 
the  residue  of  the  food  is  excreted  by  the  alternate 

255 


CICERO 

haud  sane  clirT.cile  dictu  est,  sed  tamen  praetereun- 
dum  est  ne  quid  habeat  iniucunditatis  oratio.  Illa 
potius  explicetur  incredibilis  fabrica  naturae  :  nam 
quae  spiritu  in  puhiiones  anima  ducitur,  ea  calescit 
primum  ipso  ab  spiritu,  deinde  contagione  pulmonum, 
ex  eaque  pars  redditur  respirando,  pars  concipitur 
cordis  parte  quadam  quem  ventriculum  cordis  appel- 
lant,  cui  simihs  alter  adiunctus  est  in  quem  sanguis 
a  iecore  per  venam  illam  cavam  influit  ;  eoque  modo 
ex  his  partibus  et  sanguis  per  venas  in  omne  corpus 
diffunditur  et  spiritus  per  arterias  ;  utraeque  autem 
crebrae  multaeque  toto  corpore  intextae  vim  quandam 
incredibilem    artificiosi    operis    divinique    testantur. 

139  Quid  dicam  de  ossibus  ?  quae  subiecta  corpori  mira- 
biles  commissuras  habent  et  ad  stabihtatem  aptas  et 
ad  artus  finiendos  adcommodatas  et  ad  motum  et  ad 
omnem  corporis  actionem.  Huc  adde  nervos,  a  quibus 
artus  continentur,  eorumque  inphcationem  corpore 
toto  pertinentem,  qui  sicut  venae  et  arteriae  a  corde 
tracti  et  profecti^  in  corpus  omne  ducuntur. 

140  LVI.  "  Ad  hanc  providentiam  naturae  tam  dihgen- 
tem  tamque  soUertem  adiungi  multa  possunt  e  quibus 
intellegatur  quantae  res  hominibus  a  dis-  quamque 
eximiae  tributae  sint.  Quae^  primum  eos  humo 
excitatos  celsos  et  erectos  constituit,*  ut  deorum 
cognitionem  caelum  intuentes  capere  possent.    Sunt 

^  sic  edd. ;  tractae  et  profectae  mss. 

*  a  dis  secl.  Schomann.         '  quae  Asconius  :  qui  mss. 

*  constituerunt  dett. 

<•  The  Greeks  used  the  same  word  neuroi  for  both,  and 
did  not  clearly  distinguish  them. 

-25& 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  Iv.— Ivi. 

astriction  and  relaxation  of  the  bovvels  ;  however  this 
topie  must  be  passed  over  lest  my  discourse  should  be 
somewhat  offensive.  Rather  let  me  unfold  the  foUow- 
ing  instance  of  the  incredible  skilfulness  of  nature's 
handiwork.  The  air  drawn  into  the  lungs  by  breath- 
ing  is  warmed  in  the  first  instance  by  the  breath  itself 
and  then  by  contact  with  the  lungs  ;  part  of  it  is  re- 
turned  by  the  act  of  respiration,  and  part  is  received 
by  a  certain  part  of  the  heart.  called  the  cardiac 
ventricle,  adjacent  to  which  is  a  second  similar 
vessel  into  which  the  blood  flows  from  the  hver 
through  the  veiia  cava  mentioned  above  ;  and  in  this 
manner  from  these  organs  both  the  blood  is  diffused 
through  the  veins  and  the  breath  through  the  arteries 
all  over  the  body.  Both  of  these  sets  of  vessels  are 
very  numerous  and  are  closely  interwoven  with  the 
tissues  of  the  entire  body  ;  they  testify  to  an  extra- 
ordiiiary  degree  of  skilful  and  divine  craftsmanship. 

139  Why  need  I  speak  about  the  bones,  which  are  the  the  stmc- 
framework  of  the  body  ?  their  marvellous  cartilages  i^n'8  body  j 
are  nicely  adapted  to  secure  stabiUty,  and  fitted  to 

end  off  the  joints  and  to  allow  of  movement  and 
bodily  activity  of  every  sort.  Add  thereto  the  nerves 
or  sinews^'  which  hold  the  joints  together  and  whose 
ramifications  pervade  the  entire  body  ;  Hke  the  veins 
and  arteries  these  lead  from  the  heart  as  their 
starting-point  and  pass  to  all  parts  of  the  body. 

140  LVI.  "  Many  further  illustrations  could  be  given  "i^i?'?  «J^ct 
of  this  wise   and  careful  providence   of  nature,  to  ^*^"^  ^^^' 
illustrate  the  lavishness  and  splendour  of  the  gifts 
bestowed  by  the  gods  on  men.    First,  she  has  raised 

them  from  the  ground  to  stand  tall  and  upright,  so 
that  tliey  might  be  able  to  behold  the  sky  and  so  gain 
a  knowledge  of  the  gods.     For  men  are  sprung  from 

257 


CICERO 

enim  ex  terra  homines  non  ut  incolae  atque  habita- 
tores  sed  quasi  spectatores  superarum  rerum  atque 
caelestium,  quarum  spectaculum  ad  nullum  aliud 
genus  animantium  pertinet.  Sensus  autem  inter- 
pretes  ac  nuntii  rerum  in  capite  tamquam  in  arce 
mirifice  ad  usus  necessarios  et  facti  et  conlocati  sunt. 
Nara  oculi  tamquam  speculatores  altissimum  locum 
obtinent,  ex  quo  plurima  conspicientes  fungantur  suo 

141  munere  ;  et  aures,  cura  sonura  percipere  debeant 
qui  natura  in^  sublime  fertur,  recte  in  altis  corporum 
partibus  collocatae  sunt ;  itemque  nares  et  quod 
omnis  odor  ad  supera  fertur  recte  sursum  sunt  et 
quod  cibi  et  potionis  iudicium  raagnum  earum  est 
non  sine  causa  vicinitatera  oris  secutae  sunt.  lam 
gustatus,  qui  sentire  eorum  quibus  vesciraur  genera 
debet,^  habitat  in  ea  parte  oris  qua  esculentis  et  potu- 
lentis  iter  natura  patefecit.  Tactus  autem  toto  cor- 
pore  aequabiliter  fusus  est,  ut  omnes  ictus  oranesque 
minimos'  et  frigoris  et  caloris  adpulsus  sentire  possi- 
mus.  Atque  ut  in  aedificiis  architecti  avertunt  ab 
oculis  naribusque  dominorum  ea  quae  profluentia  ne- 
cessario  taetri  essent  aliquid  habitura,  sic  natura  res 
simihs  procul  amandavit  a  sensibus. 

142  LVII.  "  Quis  vero  opifex  praeter  naturam,  qua 
nihil  potest  esse  calhdius,  tantam  soUertiam  per- 
sequi  potuisset  in  sensibus  ?  quae  primura  oculos 
merabranis  tenuissirais  vestivit  et  saepsit,  quas  pri- 

1  in  om.  deft.  ^  debet  dett.  :  deberet  A,  B. 

^  mininios  dett.  :  niinios  A,  B. 

258 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  Ivi.— Ivii. 

the  earth  not  as  its  inhabitants  and  denizens,  but  to 
be  as  it  were  the  spectators  of  things  supernal  and 
heavenly,  in  the  contemplation  whereof  no  other 
species  of  animals  participates.  Next,  the  senses,  man'sorgans 
posted  in  the  citadel  of  the  head  as  the  reporters  and  ^^^^^^®» 
messengers  of  the  outer  world,  both  in  structure  and 
position  are  marvellously  adapted  to  their  necessary 
services.  The  eyes  as  the  watchmen  have  the  highest 
station,  to  give  them  the  widest  outlook  for  the  per- 

tl  formance  of  their  function.  The  ears  also,  having  the 
duty  of  perceiving  sound,  the  nature  of  which  is  to 
rise,  are  rightly  placed  in  the  upper  part  of  the  body. 
The  nostrils  hkewise  are  rightly  placed  high  inasmuch 
as  all  smells  travel  upwards,  but  also,  because  they 
have  much  to  do  ^vith  discriminating  food  and  drink, 
they  have  with  good  reason  been  brought  into  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  mouth.  Taste,  which  has  the 
function  of  distinguishing  the  flavours  of  our  various 
viands,  is  situated  in  that  part  of  the  face  where 
nature  has  made  an  aperture  for  the  passage  of  food 
and  drink.  The  sense  of  touch  is  evenly  diffused  over 
all  the  body,  to  enable  us  to  perceive  all  sorts  of  con- 
tacts  and  even  the  minutest  impacts  of  both  cold  and 
heat.  And  just  as  architects  relegate  the  drains  of 
houses  to  the  rear,  away  from  the  eyes  and  nose  of 
the  masters,  since  otherwise  they  would  inevitably 
be  somewhat  offensive,  so  nature  has  banished  the 
corresponding  organs  of  the  body  far  away  from  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  senses. 

\2  LVII.  "  Again  what  artificer  but  nature,  who  is 
unsurpassed  in  her  cunning,  could  have  attained  such 
skilfulness  in  the  construction  of  the  senses  ?  First, 
she  has  clothed  and  walled  the  eyes  with  membranes 
of  the  finest  texture,  which  she  has  made  on  the  one 

259 


CICERO 

mum  perlucidas  fecit  ut  per  eas  cerni  posset,  firmas 
aulem  ut  continerent^ ;  sed  lubricos  oculos  fecit  et 
mobiles,  ut  et  declinarent  si  quid  noceret  et  aspec- 
tum  quo  vellent  facile  converterent  ;  aciesque  ipsa 
qua  cernimus,  quae  pupula  vocatur,  ita  parva  est  ut 
ea  quae  nocere  possint  facile  vitet,  palpebraeque, 
quae  sunt  tegmenta  oculorum,  mollissimae  tactu  ne 
laederent  aciem,  aptissime  factae^  et  ad  claudendas 
pupulas  ne  quid  incideret  et  ad  aperiendas,  idque 
providit  ut  identidem  fieri  posset  cum  maxima  celeri- 

143  tate.  Munitaeque  sunt  palpebrae  tamquam  vallo 
pilorum,  quibus  et  apertis  oculis  si  quid  incideret 
repelleretur  et  somno  coniventibus,  cum  oculis  ad 
cernendum  non  egeremus,!^  ut  qui  tamquam  involuti 
quiescerent.  Latent  praeterea  utiliter  et  excelsis 
undique  partibus  saepiuntur  ;  primum  enim  superiora 
superciliis  obducta  sudorem  a  capite  et  fronte  de- 
fluentem  repellunt  ;  genae  deinde  ab  inferiore  parte 
tutantur  subiectae  leniterque  eminentes  ;  nasusque 
ita  locatus  est  ut  quasi  murus  oculis  interiectus  esse 

144  videatur.  Auditus  autem  semper  patet,  eius  enim 
sensu  etiam  domiientes  egemus,  a  quo  cum  sonus  est 
acceptus  etiam  e  somno  excitamur.  Flexuosum  itcr 
habet,  ne  quid  intrare  possit  si  simplex  et  dcrectum 
pateret  ;    provisum  etiam  ut  si  qua  minima  bestiola 

^  continerent  Lambinus  :   continerentur. 

2  et  aptissirnae  factae  sunt  I/chu/or/. 

3  locuni  corriiptum  edd.  varie  scmant. 

"  Pvpa^  Kopr],  so  called  from  its  reflecting  a  sinall  image 
of  a  person  who  looks  into  it. 
2G0 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  Ivii. 

hand  transparent  so  that  we  may  be  able  to  see 
through  them,  and  on  the  other  hand  firm  of  sub- 
stance,  to  serve  as  the  outer  cover  of  the  eye.  The 
eyes  she  has  made  mobile  and  smoothly  turning,  so 
as  both  to  avoid  any  threatened  injury  and  to 
direct  their  gaze  easily  in  any  direction  they  desire. 
The  actual  organ  of  vision,  called  the  pupil  or  *  httle 
doll,'<^  is  so  small  as  easily  to  avoid  objects  that  might 
nijure  it ;  and  the  hds,  which  are  the  covers  of  the 
eyes,  are  very  soft  to  the  touch  so  as  not  to  hurt  the 
pupil,  and  very  neatly  constructed  so  as  to  be  able 
both  to  shut  the  eyes  in  order  that  nothing  may  im- 
pinge  upon  them  and  to  open  them  ;  and  nature  has 
provided  that  this  process  can  be  repeated  again  and 

143  again  with  extreme  rapidity.  The  eyelids  are  fur- 
nished  with  a  palisade  of  hairs,  whereby  to  ward  off 
any  impinging  object  while  the  eyes  are  open,  and 
so  that  while  they  are  closed  in  sleep,  when  we  do  not 
need  the  eyes  for  seeing,  they  may  be  as  it  were 
tucked  up  for  repose.  Moreover  the  eyes  are  in  an 
advantageously  retired  position,  and  shielded  on  all 
sides  by  surrounding  prominences  ;  for  first  the  parts 
above  them  are  covered  by  the  eyebrows  which  pre- 
vent  sweat  from  flowing  down  from  the  scalp  and 
forehead  ;  then  the  cheeks,  which  are  placed  beneath 
them  and  which  slightly  project,  protect  them  from 
below  ;   and  the  nose  is  so  placed  as  to  seem  to  be 

1-44  a  wall  separating  the  eyes  from  one  another.  The 
organ  of  hearing  on  the  other  hand  is  ahvays  open, 
since  we  require  this  sense  even  when  asleep,  and 
when  it  receives  a  sound,  we  are  aroused  even  from 
sleep.  The  auditory  passage  is  winding,  to  prevent 
anything  from  being  able  to  enter,  as  it  might  if  the 
passage  were  clear  and  straiii;ht ;  it  has  further  been 

261 


CICERO 

conaretur  inrumpere^  in  sordibus  aurium  tamquam 
in  visco  inhaeresceret.  Extra  autem  eminent  quae 
appellantur  aures,  et  tegendi  causa  factae  tutandique 
sensus  et  ne  adiectae  voces  laberentur  atque  errarent 
prius  quam  sensus  ab  iis  pulsus  esset.  Sed  duros  et 
quasi  corneolos  habent  introitus  multisque  cum  flexi- 
bus,  quod  his  naturis  relatus  ampUficatur  sonus  ; 
quocirca  et  in  fidibus  testudine  resonatur  aut  cornu, 
et  ex  tortuosis  locis   et   inclusis    <soni>2  referuntur 

145  ampliores.  Similiter  nares,  quae  semper  propter 
necessarias  utiHtates  patent,  contractiores  habent  in- 
troitus,  ne  quid  in  eas  quod  noceat  possit  pervadere  ; 
umoremque  semper  habent  ad  pulverem  multaque  alia 
depellenda  non  inutilem.  Gustatus  praeclare  saeptus 
est,  ore  enim  continetur  et  ad  usum  apte  et  ad  in- 
columitatis  custodiam. 

LVIII.  "  Omnesque'  sensus  hominum  multo  ante- 
cellunt*  sensibus  bestiarum.  Primum  enim  oculi  in 
iis  artibus  quarum  iudicium  est  oculorum,  in  pictis 
fictis^  caelatisque  formis,  in  corporum  etiam  motione 
atque  gestu  multa*  cernunt  subtilius,  colorum  enim' 
et  figararum  [tum]^  venustatem  atque  ordinem  et  ut 
ita  dicam  decentiam  oculi  iudicant  ;  atque  etiam  alia 
maiora,  nam  et  virtutes  et  vitia  cognoscunt,  iratum 
propitium,  laetantem  dolentem,  fortem  ignavum,  au- 

146  dacem  timidumque^  [cognoscunt].^°  Auriumque  item 
est  admirabile  quoddam  artificiosumque  iudicium,  quo 

^  irrepere  quidam  apud  Lambinum. 

*  <soni>  Lambinus,  post  referuntur  dett. 

^  omnisque  A  corr. 

*  antecellunt  B  corr.  :   antecellit. 

^  An  ut  dittographia  secludendum?  cf.  §  150  ed. 

•  mvWo  ?  ed.  '  enim  JTeindorf :   etiam. 

'  secl.  Manutius  :  <orna>tum  vel  <habi>tum  Plasberg. 

'  que  om.  Ald.  "  secl.  Baiter. 

262 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  Ivii.— Kiii. 

provided  that  even  the  tiniest  insect  that  may  at- 
tempt  to  intrude  may  be  caught  in  the  sticky  wax  of 
the  ears.  On  the  outside  project  the  organs  which 
we  call  ears,  which  are  constructed  both  to  cover  and 
protect  the  sense-organ  and  to  prevent  the  sounds 
that  reach  them  from  sHding  past  and  being  lost  be- 
fore  they  strike  the  sense.  The  apertures  of  the  ears 
are  hard  and  gristly,  and  much  convoluted,  because 
things  with  these  quahties  reflect  and  ampHfy  sound  ; 
this  is  why  tortoise-shell  or  horn  gives  reson- 
ance  to  a  lyre,  and  also  why  winding  passages  and 
enclosures  have  an  echo  which  is  louder  than  the 

.45  original  sound.  Similarly  the  nostrils,  which  to  serve 
the  purposes  required  of  them  have  to  be  always  open, 
have  narrower  apertures,  to  prevent  the  entrance  of 
anything  that  may  harm  them  ;  and  they  are  always 
moist,  which  is  useful  to  guard  them  against  dust  and 
many  other  things.  The  sense  of  taste  is  admirably 
shielded,  being  enclosed  in  the  mouth  in  a  manner 
well  suited  for  the  performance  of  its  function  and 
for  its  protection  against  harm. 

LVIII.  **  And  all  the  senses  of  man  far  excel  those 
of  the  lower  animals.  In  the  first  place  our  eyes  have 
a  finer  perception  of  many  things  in  the  arts  which 
appeal  to  the  sense  of  sight,  painting,  modelHng  and 
sculpture,  and  also  in  bodily  movements  and  ges- 
tures  ;  since  the  eyes  judge  beauty  and  arrangement 
and  so  to  speak  propriety  of  colour  and  shape  ;  and 
also  other  more  important  matters,  for  they  also 
recognize  virtues  and  vices,  the  angry  and  the  friendly, 
the  joyful  and  the  sad,  the  brave  man  and  the  coward, 

146  the  bold  and  the  craven.  The  ears  are  likewise 
marvellously  skilful  organs  of  discrimination  ;    they 


263 


CICERO 

iudicatur  et  in  vocis  et  in  tibiarum  nervorumque 
cantibus  varietas  sonorum  intervalla  distinctio,  et 
vocis  genera  permulta,  canorum  fuscum,  leve  asperum, 
grave  acutum.  flexibile  durum,  quae  hominum  solum 
auribus  iudicantur.  Nariumque  item  et  gustandi  et 
<quadam  ex>^  parte  tangendi  magna  iudicia  sunt. 
Ad  quos  sensus  capiendos  et  perfruendos  plures 
etiam  quam  vellem  artes  repertae  sunt.  Perspicuum 
est  enim  quo  conpositiones  unguentorum,  quo  cibo- 
rum  conditiones,  quo  corporum  lenocinia  processerint. 

147  LIX.  "  lam  vero  animum  ipsum  mentemque  homi- 
nis  rationem  consilium  prudentiam  qui  non  di\ina 
cura  perfecta  esse  perspicit,  is  his  ipsis  rebus  mihi 
videtur  carere.  De  quo  dum  disputarem  tuam  milii 
dari  vellem,  Cotta,  eloquentiam.  Quo  enim  tu  illa 
modo  diceres  quanta  primum  intellegentia,  deinde 
consequentium  rerum  cum  primis  coniunctio  et  con- 
prehensio  esset  in  nobis  ;  ex  quo  videlicet  iudicamus' 
quid  ex  quibusque  rebus  efficiatur  idque  ratione  con- 
cludimus,  singulasque  res  definimus  circumscripte- 
que  complectimur  ;  ex  quo  scientia  intellegitur 
quam  vim  habcat  quahs^quo^  sit,  qua  ne  in  deo 
quidem  est  res  ulla  praestantior.  Quanta  vero  illa 
sunt,  quae  vos  Academici  infirmatis  et  tolhtis,  quod 
et  sensibus  et  animo  ea  quae  extra  sunt  percipimus 

148  atque  conprendimus  ;    ex  quibus  conlatis  inter  se  et 

^  ci.  Plasherg. 

2  (videlicet     iudicamus    Phisherg :      iudicamus    videHcet 
VahJen):  videhcet  A,  videmus  B. 
^  Moser. 

"  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  three  words  varietas^  inter- 
valla,  distinctio  are  merely  a  periphrasis  for  the  single  term 

264 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  Iviii.— lix. 

jiidgc  differences  of  tone,  of  pitch  and  of  key  **  in  tlie 
music  of  the  voice  and  of  wind  and  stringed  instru- 
ments,  and  many  difterent  quaHties  of  voice,  sonorous 
and  dull,  smooth  and  rough,  bass  and  treble,  flexible 
and  hard,  distinctions  discriminated  by  the  human 
ear  alone.  Likewise  the  nostrils,  the  taste  and  in 
some  measure  the  touch  have  highly  sensitive  facul- 
ties  of  discrimination.  And  the  arts  invented  to 
appeal  to  and  indulge  these  senses  are  even  more 
numerous  than  I  could  wish.  The  developments  of 
perfumery  and  cookery  and  of  the  meretricious 
adornment  of  the  person  are  obvious  examples. 

147  LIX.  "  Coming  now  to  the  actual  mind  and  intel-  man'sdivina 
lect  of  man,  his  reason,  wisdom  and  foresight,  onefeason; 
who  cannot  see  that  these  owe  their  perfection  to 

divine  providence  must  in  my  view  himself  be  devoid 
of  these  very  faculties.  While  discussing  this  topic 
I  could  wish,  Cotta,  that  I  had  the  gift  of  your  elo- 
quence.  How  could  not  you  describe  first  our  powers 
of  understanding,  and  then  our  faculty  of  conjoining  ^ 
prcmisses  and  consequences  in  a  single  act  of  appre- 
hension,  the  faculty  I  mean  that  enables  us  to  judge  — 
what  conclusion  follows  from  any  given  propositions 
and  to  put  the  inference  in  syllogistic  form,  and  also 
to  dehmit  particular  terms  in  a  succinct  definition  ; 
whence  we  arrive  at  an  understanding  of  the  potency 
and  the  nature  of  knowledge,  which  is  the  most  ex- 
cellent  part  even  of  the  divine  nature.  Again,  how 
remarkable  are  the  faculties  which  you  Academics  in- 
vahdate  and  abohsh,  our  sensory  and  intellectual  per- 

148  ception  and  comprehension  of  external  objects  ;  it  is 
by  collating  and  comparing  our  percepts  that  we  also 

8ia<xT,]/j.aTa, '  dilTerences  of  pitch,'  in  contrast  with  differences 
of  quality  which  follow. 

265 


CICERO 

conparatis  artes  quoque  effieimus  partim  ad  usum 
vitae  partim  ad  oblectationem  necessarias.  lam  vero 
domina  rerum,  ut  vos  soletis  dicere,  eloquendi  vis 
quam  est  praeclara  quamque  divina :  quae  primum 
efficit  ut  et  ea  quae  ignoramus  discere  et  ea  quae 
scimus  alios  docere  possimus  ;  deinde  hac  cohorta- 
mur  hac  persuademus,  hac  consolamur  afflictos  hac 
deducimus  perterritos  a  timore,  hac  gestientes  con- 
primimus  hac  cupiditates  iracundiasque  restingui- 
mus,  haec  nos  iuris  legum  urbium  societate  devinxit, 

149  haec  a  vita  inmani  et  fera  segrega\dt.  Ad  usum 
autem  orationis  incredibile  est,  si^  diUgenter  atten- 
deris,  quanta  opera  machinata  natura  sit.  Primum 
enim  a  pulmonibus  arteria  usque  ad  os  intimum 
pertinet,  per  quam  vox  principium  a  mente  ducens 
percipitur  et  funditur.  Deinde  in  ore  sita  Ungua  est 
finita^  dentibus  ;  ea  vocem  inmoderate  profusam 
fingit  et  terminat  atque  sonos  vocis  distinctos  et 
pressos  efficit  cum  et^  dentes  et*  ahas  partes  peUit 
oris.  Itaque  plectri  similem  hnguam  nostri  solent 
dicere,  chordarum  dentes,  nares  cornibus  iis  qui  ad 
nervos  resonant  in  cantibus. 

150  LX.  "  Quam  vero  aptas  quamque  multarum  artium 
ministras  manus  natura  homini  dedit.  Digitorum 
enim  contractio  faciUs  faciUsque  porrectio  propter 
moUes  commissuras  et  artus  nullo  in  motu  laborat. 
Itaque  ad  pingendum,  <ad>^  fingendum,  ad  scalpen- 
dum,  ad  nervorum  eUciendos  sonos  ac  tibiarum 
apta  manus  est  admotione  digitorum.     Atque  haec 

*  si  Madvig  :  nisi.  '  munita  Baenemann, 

"  et  ad  ^  corr.  *  et  ad  A. 

5  acld.  Ald. :  [fingendum]  ?  cf.  §  145  ed. 

"  The  vibration  of  the  hoUow  horns  no  doubt  intensified 
the  sound  of  the  strings. 
266 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  lix.— Ix.  y 

/ 
create  the  arts  that  serve  either  practical  necessities  man'8  gift  of 
or  the  purpose  of  amiisement.    Then  take  the  gift  of  ^p/qJ^*"*! 
speech,  the  queen  of  arts  as  you  are  fond  of  calhng 
it — what  a  glorious,  what  a  divine  faculty  it  is  !     In 
the  first  place  it  enables  us  both  to  learn  things  we  do 
not  know  and  to  teach  things  we  do  know  to  others  ; 
secondly  it  is  our  instrument  for  exhortation  and  per- 
suasion,  for  consoUng  the  afflicted  and  assuaging  the 
fears  of  the  terrified,  for  curbing  passion  and  quench- 
ing  appetite  and  anger  ;  it  is  this  that  has  united  us 
in  the  bonds  of  justice,  law  and  civil  order,  this  that 

149  has  separated  us  from  savagery  and  barbarism.  Now 
careful  consideration  will  show  that  the  mechanism 
of  speech  displays  a  skill  on  nature's  part  that  sur- 
passes  beHef.  In  the  first  place  there  is  an  artery 
passing  from  the  lungs  to  the  back  of  the  mouth, 
which  is  the  channel  by  which  the  voice,  originating 
from  the  mind,  is  caught  and  uttered.  Next,  the 
tongue  is  placed  in  the  mouth  and  confined  by  the 
teeth  ;  it  modulates  and  defines  the  inarticulate  flow 
of  the  voice  and  renders  its  sounds  distinct  and  clear 
by  striking  the  teeth  and  other  parts  of  the  mouth. 
Accordingly  my  school  is  fond  of  comparing  the  tongue 
to  the  quill  of  a  lyre,  the  teeth  to  the  strings,  and  the 
nostrils  to  the  horns  which  echo  "  the  notes  of  the 
strings  when  the  instrument  is  played. 

150  LX.  "  Then  what  clever  servants  for  a  great  the  mechan- 
variety  of  arts  are  the  hands  which  nature  has  be-  {fancf.^a^Hd"^ 
stowed  on  man  !  The  flexibiUty  of  the  joints  enables  lus  capacity 
the  fingers  to  close  and  open  with  equal  ease,  and  to  and  craftet 
perform  every  motion  wdthout  difficulty.     Thus  by 

the  manipulation  of  the  fingers  the  hand  is  enabled 
to  paint,  to  model,  to  carve,  and  to  draw  forth  the 
notes  of  the  lyre  and  of  the  flute.    And  beside  these 

267 


CICERO 

oblectationis,  illa  necessitatis,  cultus  dico  agrorura 
extructionesque  tectorum,  tegumenta  corporuni  vel 
texta  vel  suta  omnemque  fabricam  aeris  et  ferri ;  ex 
quo  intellegitur  ad  inventa  animo,  percepta  sensibus 
adhibitis  opificum  manibus  omnia  nos  consecutos, 
ut   tecti   ut   vestiti   ut   salvi   esse   possemus,   m-bes 

151  muros  domicilia  delubra  haberemus.  lam  vero 
operibus  hominum,  id  est  manibus,  cibi  etiam 
varietas  invenitur  et  copia.  Nam  et  agri  multa 
efferunt  manu  quaesita  quae  vel  statim  con- 
sumantur  vel  mandentur  condita  vetustati,  et  prae- 
terea  vescimur  bestiis  et  terrenis  et  aquatihbus 
et  volantibus  partim  capiendo  partim  alendo.  Effici- 
mus  etiam  domitu  nostro  quadripedum  vectiones, 
quorum  celeritas  atque  vis  nobis  ipsis  adfert  vim  et 
celeritatem  ;  nos  onera  quibusdam  bestiis  nos  iuga 
inponimus,  nos  elephantorum  acutissumis  sensibus  nos 
sagacitate  canum  ad  utiUtatem  nostram  abutimur, 
nos  e  terrae  cavernis  ferrum  ehgimus  rem  ad  colen- 
dos  agros  necessariam,  nos  aeris  argenti  auri  venas 
penitus  abditas  invenimus  et  ad  usum  aptas  et  ad  or- 
natum  decoras.  Arborum  autem  consectione  omnique 
materia  et  culta  et  silvestri  partim  ad  calficiendum 
corpus  igni  adhibito  et  ad  mitigandum  cibum  utimur, 
partim  ad  aedificandum  ut  tectis  saepti  frigora  ca- 

152  loresque  pellamus ;  magnos  vero  usus  adfert  ad  na- 
vigia  facienda,  quorum  cursibus  subpeditantur  omnes 
undique  ad  vitam  copiae  ;  quasque  res  violentissimas 
268 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  Ix. 

art*^  of  recreation  there  are  those  of  utility,  I  mean 
agriculture  and  building,  the  weaving  and  stitching 
of  garments,  and  the  various  modes  of  working  bronze 
and  iron  ;  hence  we  reahze  that  it  was  by  applying 
the  hand  of  the  artificer  to  the  discoveries  of  thought 
andobservationsof  thesenses  that  all  ourconveniences 
were  attained,  and  we  were  enabled  to  have  shelter, 
clothing  and  protection,  and  possessed  cities,  fortifi- 

151  cations,  houses  and  temples.  Moreover  men's  in- 
dustry,  that  is  to  say  the  work  of  their  hands,  procures 
us  also  our  food  in  variety  and  abundance.  It  is  the 
hand  that  gathers  the  divers  products  of  the  fields, 
whether  to  be  consumed  immediately  or  to  be  stored 
in  repositories  for  the  days  to  come  ;  and  our  diet  also 
includes  flesh,  fish  and  fowl,  obtained  partly  by  the 
chase  and  partly  by  breeding.  We  also  tame  the  four- 
footed  animals  to  carry  us  on  their  backs,  their  swift- 
ness  and  strength  bestowing  strength  and  swiftness 
upon  ourselves.  We  cause  certain  beasts  to  bear  our 
burdens  or  to  carry  a  yoke,  we  divert  to  our  service 
the  marvellously  acute  senses  of  elephants  and  the 
keen  scent  of  hounds  ;  we  collect  from  the  caves  of 
the  earth  the  iron  which  we  need  for  tilHng  the  land, 
we  discover  the  deeply  hidden  veins  of  copper,  silver 
and  gokl  which  serve  us  both  for  use  and  for  adorn- 
ment  ;  we  cut  up  a  multitude  of  trees  both  wild  and 
cultivated  for  timber  which  we  employ  partly  by 
setting  fire  to  it  to  warm  our  bodies  and  cook  our 
food,  partly  for  building  so  as  to  shelter  ourselves 

152  with  houses  and  banish  heat  and  cold.  Timber  more- 
over  is  of  great  value  for  constructing  ships,  whose 
voyages  supply  an  abundance  of  sustenance  of  all 
sorts  from  all  parts  of  the  earth  ;  and  we  alone  have 
the  power  of  controlhng  the  most  violent  of  nature's 

269 


CICERO 

natura  genuit  earum  moderationem  nos  soli  habemus, 
maris  atque  ventorum,  propter  nauticarum  rerum 
scientiam,  plurimisque  maritimis  rebus  fruimur  atque 
utimur.  Terrenorum  item  commodorum  omnis  est  in 
homine  dominatus  :  nos  campis  nos  montibus  frui- 
mur,  nostri  sunt  amnes  nostri  lacus,  nos  fruges  seri- 
mus  nos  arbores,  nos  aquarum  inductionibus  terris 
fecunditatem  damus,  nos  flumina  arcemus  derigimus 
avertimus,  nostris  denique  manibus  in  rerum  natura 
quasi  alteram  naturam  efficere  conamur. 

153  LXI.  "  Quid  vero  ?  hominum  ratio  non  in  caelum 
usque  penetravit  ?  Soli  enim  ex  animantibus  nos 
astrorum  ortus  obitus  cursusque  cognovimus,  ab 
hominum  genere  finitus  est  dies  mensis  annus, 
defectiones  solis  et  lunae  cognitae  praedictaeque  in 
omne  posterum  tempus,  quae  quantae  quando 
futurae  sint.  Quae  contuens  animus  accedit  ad 
cognitionem  deorum,  e  qua  oritur  pietas,  cui  con- 
iuncta  iustitia  est  reUquaeque  virtutes,  e  quibus 
vita  beata  existit  par  et  similis  deorum,  nulla  alia 
re  nisi  inmortalitate,  quae  nihil  ad  bene  vivendum 
pertinet,  cedens  caelestibus.  Quibus  rebus  expositis 
satis  docuisse  videor  hominis  natura  quanto  omnis 
anteiret  animantes  ;  ex  quo  debet  intellegi  nec 
figuram  situmque  membrorum  nec  ingenii  mentis- 
que  vim  talem  effici  potuisse  fortuna. 

154  *'  Restat  ut  doceam  atque  aUquando  perorem,  omnia 
quae  sint  in  hoc  mundo  quibus  utantur  homines 
hominum  causa  facta  esse  et  parata. 

270 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  11.  Ix.— Ixi. 

ofFspring,  the  sea  and  the  winds,  thanks  to  the  science 
of  navigation,  and  we  use  and  enjoy  many  products 
of  the  sea.  Likewise  the  entire  command  of  the 
commodities  produced  on  land  is  vested  in  mankind. 
We  enjoy  the  fruits  of  the  plains  and  of  the  mountains, 
the  rivers  and  the  lakes  are  ours,  we  sow  corn,  we 
plant  trees,  we  fertihze  the  soil  by  irrigation,  we  con- 
fine  the  rivers  and  straighten  or  divert  their  courses. 
In  fine,  by  means  of  our  hands  we  essay  to  create  as 
it  were  a  second  world  ^vithin  the  world  of  nature. 

153  LXI.  "  Then  moreover  has  not  man's  reason  pene-  '^^^'^''.. 
trated  even  to  the  sky  ?    We  alone  of  hving  creatures  ^serve  the 
know  the  risings  and  settings  and  the  courses  of  the  {o^JoJ^ifp'' 
stars,  the  human  race  has  set  hmits  to  the  day,  the  thegods. 
month  and  the  year,  and  has  learnt  the  echpses  of 

the  sun  and  moon  and  foretold  for  all  future  time 
their  occurrence,  their  extent  and  their  dates.  And 
contemplating  the  heavenly  bodies  the  mind  arrives 
at  a  knowledge  of  the  gods,  from  which  arises  piety, 
with  its  comrades  justice  and  the  rest  of  the  virtues, 
the  sources  of  a  hfe  of  happiness  that  vies  with  and 
resembles  the  divine  existence  and  leaves  us  inferior 
to  the  celestial  beings  in  nothing  else  save  immor- 
taUty,  which  is  immaterial  for  happiness.  I  think 
that  my  exposition  of  these  matters  has  been  suffi- 
cient  to  prove  how  widely  man's  nature  surpasses  all 
other  hving  creatures  ;  and  this  should  make  it  clear 
that  neithersuch  a  conformation  and  arrangement  of 
the  members  nor  such  power  of  mind  and  intellect 
can  possibly  have  been  created  by  chance. 

154  "  It  remains  for  me  to  show,  in  coming  finally  to  a  iv.  Pro\i- 
conclusion,  that  all  the  things  in  this  world  which  men  forman 
employ  have  been  created  and  provided  for  the  sake  C§i54toend). 
of  men. 

271 


CICERO 

LXII.  "  Principio  ipse  mundus  deorum  homimim- 
que  causa  factus  est,  quaeque  in  eo  sunt  ea  parata  ad 
fructum  hominum  et  inventa  sunt.  Est  enim  mundus 
quasi  communis  deorum  atque  hominum  domus,  aut 
urbs  utrorumque  ;  soli  enim  ratione  utentes  iure  ac 
lege  vivunt.  Ut  igitur  Athenas  et  Lacedaemonem 
Atheniensium  Lacedaemoniorumque  causa  putan- 
dum  est  conditas  esse,  omniaque  quae  sint  in  his 
urbibus  eorum  populorum  recte  esse  dicuntur,  sic 
quaecumque   sunt   in   omni   mundo   deorum    atque 

165  hominum  putanda  sunt.  lam  vero  circumitus  solis 
et  lunae  rehquorumque  siderum,  quamquam  etiam 
ad  mundi  cohaerentiam  pertinent,  tamen  et  spectacu- 
lum  hominibus  praebent ;  nuUa  est  enim  insatiabiUor 
species,  nulla  pulchrior  et  ad  rationem  sollertiamque 
praestantior  ;  eorum  enim  cursus  dimetati  maturl»- 
tates  temporum  et  varietates  mutationesque  cogno» 
vimus  ;   quae  si  hominibus  sohs  riota  sunt,  hominum 

156  facta  esse  causa  iudicandum  est.  Terra  vero  feta 
frugibus  et  vario  leguminum  genere,  quae  cum 
maxuma  largitate  fundit,  ea  ferarumne  an  hominum 
causa  gignere  videtur  ?  Quid  de  vitibus  ohvetisque 
dicam,  quarum  uberrumi  laetissumique  fructus 
nihil  omnino  ad  bestias  pertinent  ?  Neque  enim 
serendi  neque  colendi  nec  tempestive  demetendi 
percipiendique  fructus  neque  condendi  ac  reponendi 

272 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  Ixii. 

LXII.  "  In   the   first  place  the   world  itself  was  The  worid 
created  for  the  sake  of  gods  and  men,  and  the  things  heaveifiy 
that  it  contains  were  provided  and  contrived  for  the  bodies  exist 
enjoyment  of  men.     For  the  world  is  as  it  were  the  of  gods 
common   dwelhng-place    of  gods   and  men,   or  the  ^"^  ™®°* 
city  that  belongs  to  both  ;  for  they  alone  have  the 
use  of  reason  and  live  by  justice  and  by  law.     As 
therefore  Athens  and  Sparta  must  be  deemed  to  have 
been  founded  for  the  sake  of  the  Athenians  and  the 
Spartans,  and  all  the  things  contained  in  those  cities 
are  rightly  said  to  belong  to  those  peoples,  so  what- 
ever  things  are  contained  in  all  the  world  must  be 

155  deemed  to  belong  to  the  gods  and  to  men.  Again  the 
revolutions  of  the  sun  and  moon  and  other  heavenly 
bodies,  although  also  contributing  to  the  mainten- 
ance  of  the  structure  of  the  world,  nevertheless  also 
afford  a  spectacle  for  man  to  behold  ;  for  there  is  no 
sight  of  which  it  is  more  impossible  to  grow  weary, 
none  more  beautiful  nor  displaying  a  more  surpassing 
wisdom  and  skill ;  for  by  measuring  the  courses  of 
the  stars  we  know  when  the  seasons  will  come 
round,  and  when  their  variations  and  changes  will 
occur  ;  and  if  these  things  are  known  to  men  alone, 
they  must  be  judged  to  have  been  created  for  the 

156  sake  of  men.     Then  the  earth,  teeming  with  grain  xhe 
and   vetretables   of  various   kinds,  which  she   pours  ^'^s^table 

/•1-1-111  1  1  kujgdom  13 

lorth  in  lavish  abundance — does  she  appear  to  give  provided  lor 
birth  to  this  produce  for  the  sake  of  the  wild  beasts  of  maS 
or  for  the  sake  of  men  ?  What  shall  I  say  of  the  vines 
and  oHves,  whose  bounteous  and  dehghtful  fruits  do 
not  concern  the  lower  animals  at  a]l  ?  In  fact  the 
beasts  of  the  field  are  entirely  ignorant  of  the  arts  of 
sowing  and  cultivating,  and  of  reaping  and  gathering 
the  fruits  of  the  earth  in  due  season  and  storing  them 

273 


CICERO 

ulla  pecudum  scientia  est,  earumque  omnium  rerum 

157  hominum  est  et  usus  et  cura.  LXIII.  Ut  fides 
igitur  et  tibias  eorum  causa  factas  dicendum  est 
qui  illis  uti  possent,  sic  ea  quae  dixi  iis  solis  con- 
fitendum  est  esse  parata  qui  utuntur,  nec  si  quae 
bestiae  furantur  aliquid  ex  iis  aut  rapiunt,  illarum 
quoque  causa  ea  nata  esse  dicemus.  Neque  enim 
homines  murum  aut  formicarum  causa  frumentum 
condunt  sed  coniugum  et  liberorum  et  familiarum 
suarum ;  itaque  bestiae  furtim  ut  dixi  fruuntur,  domini 

158  palam  et  libere.  Hominum  igitur  causa  eas  rerum 
copias  comparatas  fatendum  est,  nisi  forte  tanta 
ubertas  et  varietas  pomorum  eorumque  iucundus 
non  gustatus  solum  sed  odoratus  etiam  et  aspectus 
dubitationem  adfert  quiu  hominibus  solis  ea  natura 
donaverit.  Tantumque  abest  ut  haec  bestiarura 
etiam  causa  parata  sint,  ut  ipsas  bestias  hominum 
gratia  generatas  esse  videamus.  Quid  enim  oves 
ahud  adferunt  nisi  ut  earum  vilhs  confectis  atque 
contextis  homines  vestiantur  ?  quae  quidem  neque 
ah  neque  sustentari  neque  ullum  fructum  edere  ex 
se  sine  cultu  hominum  et  curatione  potuissent. 
Canum  vero  tam  fida  custodia  tamque  amans  domi- 
norum  adulatio  tantumque  odium  in  externos,  et 
tam  incredibihs  ad  investigandum  sagacitas  narium 
tanta  alacritas  in  venando  quid  significat  ^  ahud  nisi 
se    ad    hominum    commoditates    esse    generatos  ? 

159  Quid  de  bubus  loquar  ?  quorum  ipsa  terga  declarant 

^  significant  ?  ed. 
274 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  11.  Ixii.— Ixiii. 

in  garners  ;  all  these  products  are  both  enjoyed  and 
167  tended  by  men.  LXIII.  Just  as  therefore  we  are 
bound  to  say  that  lyres  and  flutes  were  made  for  the 
sake  of  those  who  can  use  them,  so  it  must  be  agreed 
that  the  things  of  which  I  have  spoken  have  been 
provided  for  those  only  who  make  use  of  them,  and 
even  if  some  portion  of  them  is  filched  or  plundered 
by  some  of  the  lower  animals,  we  shall  not  admit  that 
they  were  created  for  the  sake  of  these  animals  also. 
Men  do  not  store  up  corn  for  the  sake  of  mice  and 
ants  but  for  their  wives  and  children  and  households  ; 
80  the  animals  share  these  fruits  of  the  earth  only 
by  stealth  as  I  have  said,  whereas  their  masters  enjoy 

158  them  openly  and  freely.  It  must  therefore  be  ad- 
mitted  that  all  this  abundance  was  provided  for  the 
sake  of  men,  unless  perchance  the  bounteous  plenty 
and  variety  of  our  orchard  fruit  and  the  dehghtfulness 
not  only  of  its  flavour  but  also  of  its  scent  and  appear- 
ance  lead  us  to  doubt  whether  nature  intended  this 

gift  for  man  alone  !    So  far  is  it  from  being  true  that  5|"?  t^ 
the  fruits  of  the  earth  were  provided  for  the  sake  of  are  created 
animals  as  well  as  men,  that  the  animals  themselves,  forhisuse, 
as  we  may  see,  were  created  for  the  benefit  of  men. 
What  other  use  have  sheep  save  that  their  fleeces  are 
dressed  and  woven  into  clothing  for  men  ?  and  in  fact 
they  could  not  have  been  reared  nor  sustained  nor  have 
produced  anything  of  value  ^^ithout  man's  care  and 
tendance.     Then  think  of  the  dog,  with  its  trusty 
watchfulness,  its  fawning  affection  for  its  master  and 
hatred  of  strangers,  its  incredible  keenness  of  scent 
in  following  a  trail  and  its  eagerness  in  hunting — what 
do  these  quahties  imply  except  that  they  were  created 

159  to  serve  the  conveniences  of  men  ?  Why  should  I 
speak  of  oxen  ?  the  very  shape  of  their  backs  makes 

275 


CICERO 

non  esse  se  ad  onus  accipiendum  figurata,  cervices 
autem  natae  ad  iugum,  tum  vires  umerorum  et 
latitudines  ad  aratra  [ex]trahenda.^  Quibus  cum 
terrae  subigerentur  fissione  glebarum,  ab  illo  aureo 
genere,  ut  poetae  loquuntur,  vis  nulla  umquam  ad- 
ferebatur ; 

ferrea  tum  vero  proles  exorta  repente  est, 
ausaque  funestum  prima  est  fabricarier  ensem 
et  gustare  manu  vinctum  domitumque  iuvencum. 

Tanta  putabatur  utilitas  percipi  e  bubus  ut  eorum 
visceribus  vesci  scelus  haberetur. 

LXIV.  "  Longum  est  mulorum  persequi  utilitates 
et  asinorum,  quae  certe  ad  hominum  usum  paratae 

160  sunt.  Sus  vero  quid  habet  praeter  escam  ?  cui 
quidem  ne  putesceret  animam  ipsam  pro  sale 
datam  dicit  esse  Chrysippus  ;  qua  pecude,  quod 
erat  ad  vescendum  hominibus  apta,  nihil  genuit 
natura  fecundius.  Quid  multitudinem  suavitatem- 
que  piscium  dicam  ?  quid  avium,  ex  quibus  tanta  per- 
cipitur  voluptas  ut  interdum  Pronoea  nostra  Epicurea 
fuisse  videatur  ?  atque  eae  ne  caperentur  quidem 
nisi  hominum  ratione  atque  sollertia ; — quamquam 
avis  quasdam,  et  ahtes  et  oscines,  ut  nostri  augures 
appellant,   rerum    augurandarum   causa   esse   natas 

161  putamus.  lam  vero  immanes  et  feras  beluas  nan- 
ciscimur  venando,  ut  et  vescamur  iis  et  exerceamur 

^  trahenda  Ernesti. 

"  Cicero's  translation  of  Aratus's  Phaenomenay  129  fF. 
*  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Strom.  vii.  34   KXedvdrjs   (pr^alv 
276 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  Ixiii.— Ixiv. 

it  clear  that  they  were  not  destined  to  carry  burdens, 
wliereas  their  necks  were  born  for  the  yoke  and  their 
broad  powerful  shoulders  for  drawing  the  plough. 
And  as  it  was  by  their  means  that  the  earth  was 
brought  under  tillas^e  by  breaking  up  its  clods,  no 
violence  was  ever  used  towards  them,  so  the  poets 
say,  by  the  men  of  that  Golden  Age  ; 

But  then  the  iron  race  sprang  into  being, 
And  first  did  dare  to  forge  the  deadly  sword, 
And  taste  the  ox  its  hand  had  tamed  to  bondage.'* 

So  valuable  was  deemed  the  service  that  man  re- 
ceived  from  oxen  that  to  eat  their  flesh  was  held  a 
crime. 

LXIV.  "  It  would  be  a  long  story  to  tell  of  the 
services  rendered  by  mules  and  asses,  which  were  un- 

160  doubtedly  created  for  the  use  of  men.  As  for  the  pig, 
it  can  only  furnish  food  ;  indeed  Chrysippus  ^  actually 
says  that  its  soul  was  given  it  to  serve  as  salt  and 
keep  it  from  putrefaction  ;  and  because  this  animal 
was  fitted  for  the  food  of  man,  nature  made  it  the 
most  proHfic  of  all  her  offspring.  Why  should  I  speakof 
theteeming  swarms  of  dehcious  fish  ?  or  of  birds,which 
afford  us  so  much  pleasure  that  our  Stoic  Providence 
appears  to  have  been  at  times  a  disciple  of  Epicurus  ? 
and  they  could  not  even  be  caught  save  by  man's 
inteHigence  and  cunning ; — although  some  birds, 
birds  of  flight  and  birds  of  utterance  as  our  augurs 
call  them,  we  beheve  to  have  been  created  for  the 

161  purpose  of  giving  omens.  The  great  beasts  of  the 
forest  again  we  take  by  hunting,  both  for  food  and  in 
order  to  exercise  ourselves  in  the  mimic  warfare  of  the 

avd'  a\(hv  avTovs  {tovs  Pj)  ^Xf'"  '''^^  i^^XV"*  ''''*  f^V  o^awg  tol 
xpea ;  but  Cicero  is  probably  right  in  giving  it  to  Chrysippus. 

277 


CICERO 

in  venando  ad  similitudinem  bellicae  disciplinae, 
et  utamur  domitis  et  condocefactis,  ut  elephantis, 
multaque  ex  earum  corporibus  remedia  morbis  et 
vulneribus  eligamus,  sicut  ex  quibusdam  stirpibus 
et  herbis  quarum  utilitates  longinqui  temporis  usu 
et  pericUtatione  percepimus.  Totam  Hcet  animis 
tamquam  oculis  lustrare  terram  mariaque  omnia  : 
cernes  iam  spatia  frugifera  atque  inmensa  camporum 
vestitusque  densissimos  montium,  pecudum  pastus, 

162  tum  incredibili  cursus  maritimos  celeritate.  Nec 
vero  supra  terram  sed  etiam  in  intumis  eius  tenebris 
plurimarum  rerum  latet  utiHtas  quae  ad  usum 
hominum  orta  ab  hominibus  solis  invenitur. 

LXV.  "  Illud  vero,  quod  uterque  vestrum  arripiet 
fortasse  ad  reprendendum,  Cotta  quia  Carneades 
lubenter  in  Stoicos  invehebatur,  Velleius  quia  nihil 
tam  inridet  Epicurus  quam  praedictionem  rerum 
futurarum,  mihi  videtur  vel  maxume  confirmare 
deorum  providentia  consuli  rebus  humanis.  Est 
enim  profecto  divinatio,  quae  multis  locis  rebus 
temporibus  apparet  cum  [in]^  privatis  tum  maxume 

163  publicis.  Multa  cernunt  haruspices,  multa  augures 
provident,  multa  oraclis  declarantur  multa  vatici- 
nationibus  multa  somniis  multa  portentis ;  quibus 
cognitis  multae  saepe  res  ex^  hominum  sententic 
atque  utihtate  partae,  multa  etiam  pericula  depulsa 
sunt.  Haec  igitur  sive  vis  sive  ars  sive  natura  ad 
scientiam  rerum  futurarum  homini  profecto  est  nec 
alii  cuiquam  a  dis  inmortalibus  data. 

*  secl.  Miiller,  *  ex  dett.  :  om.  A^  B. 

278 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  11.  Ixiv.— Ixv. 

chase,  and  also,  as  in  the  case  of  elephants,  to  train 
and  discipline  them  for  our  employment,  and  to 
procure  from  their  bodies  a  variety  of  medicines  for 
diseases  and  wounds,  as  also  we  do  from  certain  roots  and  so  fs  th« 
and  herbs  whose  values  we  have  learnt  by  long-con-  worid!"'° 
tinued  use  and  trial.  Let  the  mind's  eye  survey  the 
whole  earth  and  all  the  seas,  and  you  ^vill  behold  now 
fruitful  plains  of  measureless  extent  and  mountains 
thickly  clad  with  forests  and  pastures  filled  with 
flocks,  now  vessels  saihng  with  marvellous  swiftness 

L62  across  the  sea.  Nor  only  on  the  surface  of  the  earth, 
but  also  in  its  darkest  recesses  there  lurks  an  abun- 
dance  of  commodities  which  were  created  for  men's 
use  and  which  men  alone  discover. 

LXV.  "  The  next  subject  is  one  which  each  of  you  Dinnation 
perhaps  will  seize  upon  for  censure,  Cotta  because  soSy^by  ^ 
Carneades  used  to  enjoy  tilting  at  the  Stoics,  Velleius  man. 
because  nothing  provokes  the  ridicule  of  Epicurus  so 
much  as  the  art  of  prophecy  ;    but  in  my  view  it 
affords  the  very  strongest  proof  that  man's  welfare     \'^ 
is  studied  by  divine  providence.    I  refer  of  course  to 
Divination,  which  we  see  practised  in  many  regions 
and  upon  various  matters  and  occasions  both  private 

163  and  more  especially  pubhc.     Many  observations  are 
made  by  those  who  inspect  the  victims  at  sacrifices, 
many  events  are  foreseen  by  augurs  or  revealed  in 
oracles  and  prophecies,  dreams  and  portents,  a  know- 
ledge  of  which  has  often  led  to  the  acquisition  of 
many  things  gratifying  men's  wishes  and  require- 
ments,  and  also  to  the  avoidance  of  many  dangers. 
This  power  or  art  or  instinct  therefore  has  clearly    ' 
been  bestowed  by  the  immortal  gods  on  man,  and        — 
on  no  other  creature,  for  the  ascertainment  of  future     j 
events. 

279 


CICERO 

*'  Quae  si  singula  vos  forte  non  movent,  universa 
certe  tamen  inter  se  conexa  atque  coniuncta  movere 
debebunt.^ 

164  "  Nec  vero  universo  generi  hominum  solum  sed 
etiam  singulis  a  dis  inmortalibus  consuli  et  provideri 
solet.  Licet  enim  contrahere  universitatem  generis 
humani,  eamque  gradatim  ad  pauciores,  postremo 
deducere  ad  singulos.  LXVI.  Nam  si  omnibus 
hominibus  qui  ubique  sunt  quacumque  in  ora  ac 
parte  terrarum  ab  huiusce  terrae  quam  nos  incoli- 
mus  continuatione  distantium  deos  consulere  cen- 
semus  ob  eas  causas  quas  ante  diximus,  his  quoque 
hominibus    consulunt    qui   has   nobiscum   terras   ab 

165  oriente  ad  occidentem  colunt.  Sin  autem  his 
consulunt^  qui  quasi  magnam  quandam  insulam 
incolunt  quam  nos  orbem  terrae  vocamus,  etiam 
ilhs  consulunt  qui  partes  eius  insulae  tenent,  Europam 
Asiam  Africam.  Ergo  et  earum  partes  diligunt, 
ut  Romam  Athenas  Spartam  Rhodum,  et  earum 
urbium  separatim  ab  universis  singulos  dih*gunt, 
ut  Pyrrhi  bello  Curium  Fabricium  Coruncanium, 
primo  Punico  Calatinum  Duellium  Metellum  Luta- 
tium,  secundo  Maxumum  Marcellum  Africanum, 
post  hos  Paulum  Gracchum  Catonem,  patrumve  me- 
moria  Scipionem  LaeHum  ;  multosque  praeterea  et 
nostra  civitas  et  Graecia  tuht  singulares  viros,  quo- 
rum  neminem  nisi  iuvante  deo  talem  fuisse  creden- 

166  dum  est.  Quae  ratio  poetas  maxumeque  Homerum 
inpuht  ut  principibus  heroum,  Uhxi  Diomedi  Aga- 

^  debebant  nonnnlli. 
^  his  consulunt  Ald.  :  consulunt  iis  dett. 
280 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  Ixv.— Ixvi. 

"  And  if  perchance  these  arguments  separately 
fail  to  convince  you,  nevertheless  in  combination 
their  collective  weight  will  be  bound  to  do  so. 

164  "  Nor  is  the  care  and  providence  of  the  immortal  Divinecara 
gods   bestowed  only   upon   the   human   race   in   its  fndividuai' 
entirety,  but  it  is  also  wont  to  be  extended  to  indi-  men. 
viduals.     We  may  narrow  down  the  entirety  of  the 
human  race  and  bring  it  gradually  down  to  smaller 

and  smaller  groups,  and  finally  to  single  individuals. 
LXVI.  For  if  we  beheve,  for  the  reasons  that  we 
have  spoken  of  before,  that  the  gods  care  for  all 
human  beings  everywhere  in  every  coast  and  region 
of  the  lands  remote  from  this  continent  in  which  we 
dwell,  then  they  care  also  for  the  men  who  inhabit 
with  us  these  lands  between  the  sunrise   and  the 

165  sunset.  But  if  they  care  for  these  who  inhabit  that 
sort  of  vast  island  which  we  call  the  round  earth,  they 
also  care  for  those  who  occupy  the  divisions  of  that 
island,  Europe,  Asia  and  Africa.  Therefore  they 
also  cherish  the  divisions  of  those  divisions,  for  in- 
stance  Rome,  Athens,  Sparta  and  Rhodes  ;  and  they 
cherish  the  individual  citizens  of  those  cities  regarded 
separately  from  the  whole  body  coUectively,  for 
example,  Curius,  Fabricius  and  Coruncanius  in  the 
war  with  Pyrrhus,  Calatinus,  Duelhus,  Metellus  and 
Lutatius  in  the  First  Punic  War,  and  Maximus, 
Marcellus  and  Africanus  in  the  Second,  and  at  a  later 
date  Paulus,  Gracchus  and  Cato,  or  in  our  fathers' 
time  Scipio  and  Laehus  ;  and  many  remarkable  men 
besides  both  our  own  country  and  Greece  have  given 
birth   to,   none    of   whom    could    conceivably   have 

166  been  what  he  was  save  by  god's  aid.  It  was  this 
reason  which  drove  the  poets,  and  especially  Homer, 
to  attach  to  their  chief  heroes,  Ulysses,  Diomede, 

281 


CICERO 

memnoni  Achilli,  certos  deos  discriminum  et  pericu- 
lorum  comites  adiungeret.  Praeterea  ipsorum  deo- 
rum  saepe  praesentiae,  quales  supra  commemoravi, 
declarant  ab  iis  et  civitatibus  et  singulis  hominibus 
consuli.  Quod  quidem  intellegitur  etiam  significa- 
tionibus  rerum  futurarum  quae  tum  dormientibus 
tum  vigilantibus  portenduntur ;  multa  praeterea 
ostentis  multa  extis  admonemur,  multisque  rebus 
ahis    quas    diuturnus    usus    ita    notavit    ut    artem 

167  divinationis  efficeret.  Nemo  igitur  vir  magnus  sine 
ahquo  adflatu  divino  umquam  fuit.  Nec  vero 
<id>^  ita  refellendum  est  ut,  si  segetibus  aut 
vinetis  cuiuspiam  tempestas  nocuerit,  aut  si  quid 
e  vitae  commodis  casus  abstulerit,  eum  cui  quid 
horum  acciderit  aut  invisum  deo  aut  neglectum 
a  deo  iudicemus.  Magna  di  curant,  parva  neglegunt. 
Magnis  autem  viris  prosperae  semper  omnes  res, 
siquidem  satis  a  nostris  et  a  principe  philosophiae 
Socrate  dictum  est  de  ubertatibus  virtutis  et  copiis. 

168  LXVII.  "  Haec  mihi  fere  in  mentem  veniebant 
quae  dicenda  putarem  de  natura  deorum.  Tu  autem, 
Cotta,  si  me  audias,  eandem  causam  agas  teque  et 
principem  civem  et  pontificem  esse  cogites  et,  quo- 
niam  in  utramque  partem  vobis  hcet  disputare,  hanc 

^  add.  Heindorf. 

"  In  De  Divinatione  Cicero's  brother  Quintus  sets  out  in 
Book  I.  these  two  kinds  of  divination,  natural,  by  means  of 
dreams  and  ecstasies,  and  artificial,  through  the  observation 
of  entrails  of  victims,  birds'  flight,  hghtning  and  other 
portents;  in  Book  II.  Cicero  replies,  denying  divination 
altogether. 

282 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  Ixvi.— Ixvii. 

Agamemnon  or  Achilles,  certain  gods  as  the  com- 
panions  of  their  perils  and  adventures  ;  moreover  the 
gods  have  often  appeared  to  men  in  person,  as  in  the 
cases  which  I  have  mentioned  above,  so  testifying 
that  they  care  both  for  communities  and  for  indi- 
viduals.**  And  the  same  is  proved  by  the  portents  of 
future  occurrences  that  are  vouchsafed  to  men  some- 
times  when  they  are  asleep  and  sometimes  when  they 
are  awake.  Moreover  we  receive  a  number  of  warn- 
ings  by  means  of  signs  and  of  the  entrails  of  victims, 
and  by  many  other  things  that  long-continued  usage 
has  noted  in  such  a  manner  as  to  create  the  art  of 

167  divination.  Therefore  no  great  man  ever  existed  who 
did  not  enjoy  some  portion  of  divine  inspiration.  Nor 
yet  is  this  argument  to  be  di^^proved  by  pointing  to 
cases  where  a  man's  cornfields  or  vineyards  have  been 
damaged  by  a  storm,  or  an  accident  has  robbed  him 
of  some  commodity  of  value,  and  inferring  that  the 
victim  of  one  of  these  misfortunes  is  the  object  of 
god's  hatred  or  neglect.  The  gods  attend  to  great 
matters  ;  they  neglect  small  ones.  Now  great  men 
always  prosper  in  all  their  affairs,  assuming  that 
the  teachers  of  our  school  and  Socrates,  the  prince 
of  philosophy,  have  satisfactorily  discoursed  upon 
the  bounteous  abundance  of  wealth  that  virtue 
bestows. 

16S  LXVH.  "  These  are  more  or  less  the  things  that  Conclusion. 
occurred  to  me  which  I  thought  proper  to  be  said 
upon  the  subject  of  the  nature  of  the  gods.  And  for 
your  part,  Cotta,  would  you  but  hsten  to  me,  you 
would  plead  the  same  cause,  and  reflect  that  you  are 
a  leading  citizen  and  a  pontiff,  and  you  would  take 
advantage  of  the  hberty  enjoyed  by  your  school  of 
arguing  both  pro  and  conira  to  choose  to  espouse  my 

283 


CICERO 

potius  sumas,  eamque  facultatem  disserendi  quam 
tibi  a  rhetoricis  exercitationibus  acceptam  amplifi- 
cavit  Academia  potius  huc  conferas.  Mala  enim  et 
impia  consuetudo  est  contra  deos  disputandi,  sive 
ex  animo  id  fit  sive  simulate." 


284 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  II.  Ixvii. 

side,  and  preferably  to  devote  to  this  purpose  those 
powers  of  eloquence  which  your  rhetorical  exercises 
have  bestowed  upon  you  and  which  the  Academy  has 
fostered.  For  the  habit  of  arguing  in  support  of 
atheism,  whether  it  be  done  from  conviction  or  in 
pretence,  is  a  wicked  and  an  impious  practice." 


285 


LIBER  TERTIUS 

1  I.  Quae  cum  Balbus  dixisset,  tum  adridens  Cotta 
"  Sero  "  inquit "  mihi  Balbe  praecipis  quid  defendam  ; 
ego  enim  te  disputante  quid  contra  dicerem  mecum 
ipse  meditabar,  neque  tam  refellendi  tui  causa  quam 
ea  quae  minus  intellegebam  requirendi.  Cum  autem 
suo  cuique  iudicio  sit  utendum,  difficile  factu  est  me 
id  sentire  quod  tu  velis." 

2  Hic  Velleius  "  Nescis  "  inquit  "  quanta  cum 
exspectatione  Cotta  sim  te  auditurus.  lucundus 
enim  Balbo  nostro  sermo  tuus  contra  Epicurum 
fuit ;  praebebo  igitur  ego  me  tibi  vicissim  attentum 
contra  Stoicos  auditorem.  Spero  enim  te  ut  soles 
bene  paratum  venire." 

3  Tum  Cotta  "  Sic  mehercule  "  inquit  "  Vellei ; 
neque  enim  mihi  par  ratio  cum  Lucilio  est  ac  tecum 
fuit." 

"  Qni  tandem  ?  "  inquit  ille. 

**  Quia  mihi  videtur  Epicurus  vester  de  dis  inmorta- 
libus  non  magnopere  pugnare  :  tantum  modo  negare 
deos  esse  non  audet  ne  quid  invidiae  subeat  aut 
criminis.  Cum  vero  deos  nihil  agere  nihil  curare 
286 


BOOK  III 

1  I.  Cotta  smiled  when  Balbus  said  this.     "  It  is  too  Academic 
late,  Balbus,"  he  rejoined,  "  for  you  to  tell  me  what  ^'tSc^*'"' °' 
view  I  am  to  support,  for  while  you  were  discoursing  theoiogy. 

I  was  pondering  what  arguments  I  could  bring  against  ^"0^ :  Cotta 
you,  though  not  so  much  for  the  purpose  of  refuting  admits  the 
you  as  of  asking  for  an  explanation  of  the  points  Baibus'3 
which  I  could  not  quite  understand.    However,  each  ^y^°|*con' 
man  must  use  his  own  judgement,  and  it  is  a  difficult  tent  with 
task  for  me  to  take  the  view  which  you  would  hke  me  reilgkm  of 
to  take."  Rome. 

2  Hereupon  Velleius  broke  in  :  "  You  cannot  think, 
Cotta,"  said  he,  "  how  eager  I  am  to  hear  you.  Our 
good  friend  Balbus  enjoyed  your  discom-se  against 
Epicurus  ;  so  I  in  my  turn  will  give  you  an  attentive 
hearing  against  the  Stoics.  For  I  hope  that  you  come 
well  equipped,  as  you  usually  do." 

3  "  Yes,  to  be  sure,  Velleius,"  rephed  Cotta  ;  **  for  I 
have  a  very  different  business  before  me  with  Lucihus 
from  what  I  had  with  you." 

"  How  so,  pray  ?  "  said  Velleius. 

"  Because  I  think  that  your  master  Epicurus  does 
not  put  up  a  very  strong  fight  on  the  question  of  the 
immortal  gods  ;  he  only  does  not  venture  to  deny 
their  existence  so  that  he  may  not  encounter  any  ill- 
feehng  or  reproach.  But  when  he  asserts  that  the 
gods  do  nothing  and  care  for  nothing,  and  that  though 

287 


CICERO 

confirmat,  membrisque  humanis  esse  praeditos  sed 
eorum  membrorum  usum  nullum  habere,  ludere 
videtur,   satisque   putare   si   dixerit   esse   quandam 

i  beatam  naturam  et  aeternam.  A  Balbo  autem 
animadvertisti  credo  quam  multa  dicta  sint,  quam- 
que  etiamsi  minus  vera  tamen  apta  inter  se  et  co- 
haerentia.  Itaque  cogito  ut  dixi  non  tam  refellere  eius 
orationem  quam  ea  quae  minus  intellexi  requirere. 
Quare  Balbe  tibi  permitto,  responderene  mihi  maUs 
de  singuhs  rebus  quaerenti  ex  te  ea  quae  parum 
accepi,  an  universam  audire  orationem  meam." 

Tum  Balbus  "  Ego  vero  si  quid  explanari  tibi 
voles  respondere  malo,  sin  me  interrogare  non 
tam  intellegendi  causa  quam  refellendi,  utrurn 
voles  faciam  :  vel  ad  singula  quae  requires  statim 
respondebo  vel  cum  peroraris  ad  omnia." 

5  Tum  Cotta  "  Optime  "  inquit ;  "  quam  ob  rem  sic 
agamus  ut  nos  ipsa  ducet  oratio.  II.  Sed  ante  quam 
de  re,  pauca  de  me.  Nom  enim  mediocriter  moveor 
auctoritate  tua,  Balbe,  orationeque  ea  quae  me  in 
perorando  cohortabatur  ut  meminissem  me  et 
Cottam  esse  et  pontificem ;  quod  eo  credo  valebat, 
ut  opiniones  quas  a  maioribus  accepimus  de  dis 
inmortahbus,  sacra  caerimonias  rehgionesque  defen- 
derem.  Ego  vero  eas  defendam  semper  semperque 
288 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  i.— ii. 

they  possess  limbs  like  those  of  men  they  make  no  iise 
of  those  Hnibs,  he  seems  not  to  be  speaking  seriously, 
and  to  think  it  enough  if  he  affirms  the  cxistence  of 
blessed  and  everlasting  beings  of  some  sort.  But  as 
for  Balbus,  I  am  sure  you  must  have  noticed  how 
much  he  had  to  say,  and  how  though  lacking  in  truth 
it  was  yet  consistent  and  systematic.  Hence  what 
I  have  in  mind,  as  I  said,  is  not  so  much  to  refute 
his  discourse  as  to  ask  for  an  explanation  of  the 
things  that  I  could  not  quite  understand.  Accord- 
ingly,  I  offer  you  the  choice,  Balbus,  whether  you 
would  prefer  that  I  should  question  you  and  you 
reply  upon  each  of  the  points  singly  as  to  which  I 
did  not  quite  agree,  or  that  you  should  hear  out  my 
entire  discourse." 

"  Oh,"  answered  Balbus,  "  I  had  rather  reply  about 
any  point  which  you  desire  to  have  explained  to  you  ; 
or  if  you  want  to  question  me  with  a  view  not  so  much 
to  understanding  as  to  refuting  me,  I  will  do  which- 
ever  you  wish,  and  ^^-ill  either  reply  to  each  of  your 
inquiries  at  once,  or  answer  them  all  when  you  have 
completed  your  speech." 
6  "  Very  well,"  rejoined  Cotta,  "  let  us  then  proceed 
as  the  argument  itself  may  lead  us.  II.  But  before 
we  come  to  the  subject,  let  me  say  a  few  words  about 
myself.  I  am  considerably  influenced  by  your 
authority,  Balbus,  and  by  the  plea  that  you  put 
forward  at  the  conclusion  of  your  discourse,  when 
you  exhorted  me  to  remember  that  I  am  both  a  Cotta 
and  a  pontiif.  This  no  doubt  meant  that  I  ought  to 
uphold  the  behefs  about  the  immortal  gods  which 
have  come  down  to  us  from  our  ancestors,  and  the 
rites  and  ceremonies  and  duties  of  rehgion.  For  my 
part  I  always  shall  uphold  them   and  always  have 

289 


CICERO 

defendi,  nec  me  ex  ea  opinione  quam  a  maioribus 
accepi  de  cultu  deorum  inmortalium  ullius  umquam 
oratio  aut  docti  aut  indocti  movebit.  Sed  cum  de 
religione  agitur,  Ti.  Coruncanium  P.  Scipionem 
P.  Scaevolam  pontifices  maximos,  non  Zenonem 
aut  Cleanthen  aut  Chrysippum  sequor,  habeoque 
C.  Laehum  augurem  eundemque  sapientem,  quem 
potius  audiam  dicentem  de  rehgione  in  illa  oratione 
nobili  quam  quemquam  principem  Stoicorum.  Cum- 
que  omnis  populi  Romani  religio  in  sacra  et  in 
auspicia  divisa  sit,  tertium  adiunctum  sit  si  quid 
praedictionis  causa  ex  portentis  et  monstris  Sibyllae 
interpretes  haruspicesve  monuerunt,  harum  ego 
rehgionum  nullam  umquam  contemnendam  putavi, 
mihique  ita  persuasi,  Romulum  auspiciis  Numam 
sacris  constitutis  fundamenta  iecisse  nostrae  civitatis, 
quae  numquam  profecto  sine  summa  placatione  dec» 
6  rum  inmortahum  tanta  esse  potuisset.  Habes  Balbe 
quid  Cotta  quid  pontifex  sentiat ;  fac  nunc  ego 
intellegam  tu  quid  sentias.  A  te  enim  philosopho 
rationem  accipere  debeo  rehgionis,  maioribus  autem 
nostris  etiam  nulla  ratione  reddita  credere." 

III.  Tum  Balbus  "  Quam  igitur  a  me  rationem  ** 
inquit  "  Cotta,  desideras  .''  " 

Et  ille  "  Quadripertita  "  inquit  "  fuit  divisio  tua, 
primum  ut  velles  docere  deos  esse,  deinde  quales 
essent,  tum  ab  iis  mundum  regi,  postremo  consulere 


**  Laelius  when  praetor,  143  b.c,  successfully  opposed  a 
proposal  to  transfer  the  election  of  the  augurs  to  the  people, 
instcad  of  their  being  co-opted.     Cf.  §  43. 
290 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  ii.— iii. 

done  so,  and  no  eloquence  of  anybody,  learned  or 
unlearned,  shall  ever  dislodge  me  from  the  behef  as 
to  the  worship  of  the  immortal  gods  which  I  have 
inherited  from  our  forefathers.  But  on  any  question 
of  rehgion  I  am  guided  by  the  high  pontifts,  Titus 
Coruncanius,  Publius  Scipio  and  Pubhus  Scaevola, 
not  by  Zeno  or  Cleanthes  or  Chrysippus  ;  and  I  have 
Gaius  Laelius,  who  was  both  an  augur  and  a  philo- 
sopher,  to  whose  discourse  upon  rehgion,  in  hii 
famous  oration,^  I  would  rather  listen  than  to  any 
leader  of  the  Stoics.  The  rehgionof  theRomanpeople 
comprises  ritual,  auspices,  and  the  third  additional 
division  consisting  of  all  such  prophetic  warnings  as 
the  interpreters  of  the  Sybil  or  the  soothsayers  have 
derived  from  portents  and  prodigies.  Well,  I  have 
always  thought  that  none  of  these  departments  of 
rehgion  was  to  be  despised,  and  I  have  held  the  con- 
viction  that  Romulus  by  his  auspices  and  Numa  by 
his  estabhshment  of  our  ritual  laid  the  foundations  of 
our  state,  which  assuredly  could  never  have  been  as 
great  as  it  is  had  not  the  fuhest  measure  of  divine 
favour  been  obtained  for  it.  There,  Balbus,  is  the 
opinion  of  a  Cotta  and  a  pontifT;  now  oblige  me  by 
letting  me  know  yours.  You  are  a  philosopher,  and 
I  ought  to  receive  from  you  a  proof  of  your  rehgion, 
whereas  I  must  believe  the  word  of  our  ancestors  even 
without  proof." 

III.  "  What  proof  then   do  you  require   of  me, 
Cotta  ?  "  rephed  Balbus. 

"  You  divided  your  discourse  under  four  heads,"  J?'®.  (o'" 
said  Cotta  ;   "  first  you  designed  to  prove  the  exist-  thesubject. 
ence  of  the  gods  ;  secondly,  to  describe  their  nature  ; 
thirdly,  to  show  that  the  world  is  governed  by  them  ; 
and  lastly,  that  they  care  for  the  welfare  of  men. 

291 


CICERO 

eos  rebus  humanis  :   haec,  si  recte  memini,  partitio 
fuit." 

"  Rectissume  "  inquit  Balbus,  *'  sed  expecto  quid 
requiras." 

7  Tum  Cotta  "  Primum  quidque  videamus  "  inquit, 
"  et  si  id  est  primum  quod  inter  omnis  nisi  admodum 
impios  convenit,  mihi  quidem  ex  animo  excuti  non 
potest  esse  deos,  id  tamen  ipsum,  quod  mihi  per- 
suasum  est  auctoritate  maiorum,  cur  ita  sit,  nihil  tu 
me  doces." 

"  Quid  est "  inquit  Balbus,  "  si  tibi  persuasum 
est,  cur  a  me  vehs  discere  ?  " 

Tum  Cotta  "  Quia  sic  adgredior  "  inquit  "  ad 
hanc  disputationem  quasi  nihil  umquam  audierim  de 
dis  inmortalibus  nihil  cogitaverim  ;  rudem  me  et 
integrum  discipulum  accipe  et  ea  quae  requiro 
doce." 

8  "  Dic  igitur  "  inquit  "  quid  requiras." 

"  Egone  ?  primum  illud,  cur,  quom^  [perspicuum 
in]^  istam  partem^  ne  egere  quidem  oratione  dixisscs, 
quod  esset  perspicuum  et  inter  omnis  constarct 
<deos  esse>,*  de  eo  ipso  tam  multa  dixeris." 

"  Quia  te  quoque  "  inquit  "  animadverti,  Cotta, 
saepe  cum  in  foro  diceres  quam  plurimis  posses  argu- 
mentis  onerare  iudiccm,  si  modo  eam  facultatem  tibi 
daret  causa.  Atque  hoc  idem  et  philosophi  faciunt 
et  ego  ut  potui  feci.  Tu  autem  qui  id*  quaeris 
simiUter  facis  ac  si  me  roges  cur  te  duobus  contuear 

*  quom  Forchhammer  :  quod.  ^  secl.  Plasberg, 

3  in  ista  partitione  Heindor/.  *  add.  Plasberg» 

^  qui  id  dett.  :  quod. 

292 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  iii. 

These,  if  I  remember  rightly,  were  the  headings  tliat 
you  Inid  down." 

**  You  are  quite  right,"  said  Balbus  ;  "  but  now 
tell  me  what  it  is  that  you  want  to  know." 

"  Let  us  take  each  point  in  turn,"  rephed  Cotta,  r.  Tiiedivine 
"  and  if  the  first  one  is  the  doctrine  which  is  universally  j^s^s  y^.iJ).^ 
accepted  save  by  absolute  infidcls,  although  I  for  my 
part  cannot  be  persuaded  to  surrender  my  behef  that 
the  gods  exist,  nevertheless  you  teach  me  no  reason 
why  this  belief,  of  which  lam  couvinced  on  the  author- 
ity  of  our  forefathers,  should  be  true." 

"  If  you  are  convinced  of  it,"  said  Balbus,  "  what 
reason  is  there  for  your  wanting  me  to  teach  you  ?  ** 

"  Because,"  said  Cotta,  "  I  am  entering  on  this  dis- 
cussion  as  if  I  had  never  been  taught  anything  or 
reflected  at  all  about  the  immortal  gods.  Accept  me 
as  a  pupil  who  is  a  novice  and  entirely  untutored,  and 
teach  me  what  I  want  to  know." 

"  Tell  me  then,"  said  he,  "  what  do  you  want  to  ifthebeiief 

know  ^  "  inthegods 

^^^""  •  is  necessary 

"  What  do  I  want  to  kno^v  ?    First  of  all,  why  it  was  and  uni- 
that  after  saying  that  this  part  of  your  subject  did  not  argument 
even  need  discussion,  because  the  fact  of  the  divine  i^  neediess, 
existence   was   manifest   and   universally    admitted,  awaken 
you  nevertheless  discoursed  at  such  great  length  on  ^°^^^ 
that  very  point." 

"  It  was  because  I  have  often  noticed  that  you  too, 
Cotta,  when  speaking  in  court,  overwhehned  the 
judge  with  all  the  arguments  you  could  think  of, 
provided  the  case  gave  you  an  opportunity  to  do  so. 
Well,  the  Greek  philosophers  do  hkewise,  and  so  did 
I  also,  to  the  best  of  my  abihty.  But  for  you  to  ask 
me  this  question  is  just  the  same  as  if  you  were  to  ask 
me  why  I  look  at  you  with  two  eyes  instead  of  closing 

293 


CICERO 

oculis  et  non  altero  coniveam,  cum  idem  uno  adsequi 
possim." 

9  IV.  Tum  Cotta  **  Quam  simile  istud  sit  "  inquit 
"  tu  videris.  Nam  ego  neque  in  causis,  si  quid  est 
evidens  de  quo  inter  omnis  conveniat,  argumentari 
soleo  (perspicuitas  enim  argumentatione  elevatur), 
nec  si  id  facerem  in  causis  forensibus  idem  facerem 
in  hac  subtilitate  sermonis.  Cur  coniveres^  autem 
altero  oculo  causa  non  esset,  cum  idem  obtutus  esset 
amborum,  et  cum  rerum  natura,  quam  tu  sapientem 
esse  vis,  duo  lumina  ab  animo  ad  oculos  perforata  nos 
habere  voluisset.  Sed  quia  non  confidebas  tam  esse  id 
perspicuum  quam  tu  velles,  propterea  multis  argu- 
mentis  deos  esse  docere  voluisti.  Mihi  enim  unum 
sat  erat,  ita  nobis  maiores  nostros  tradidisse.     Sed  tu 

10  auctoritates  contemnis,  ratione  pugnas  ;  patere  igitur 
rationem  meam  cum  tua  ratione  contendere. 

"  Adfers  haec  omnia  argumenta  cur  di  sint, 
remque  mea  sententia  minime  dubiam  argumen- 
tando  dubiam  facis.  Mandavi  enim  memoriae  non 
numerum  solum  sed  etiam  ordinem  argumentorum 
tuorum.  Primum  fuit,  cum  caelum  suspexissemus 
statim  nos  intellegere  esse  ahquod  numen  quo  haec 
regantur.     Ex  hoc  illud  etiam  : 

*  Madvig  :  contueres. 
294 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  iii.— iv. 

one  of  them,  seeing  that  I  could  achieve  the  same 
result  with  one  eye  as  with  two.'* 
9  IV.  "  How  far  your  comparison  really  holds  good," 
rejoined  Cotta,  "  is  a  question  that  I  will  leave  to  you. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  in  law-suits  it  is  not  my  practice 
to  argue  a  point  that  is  self-evident  and  admitted  by 
all  parties,  for  argument  would  only  diminish  its 
clearness  ;  and  besides,  if  I  did  do  this  in  pleading 
cases  in  the  courts,  I  should  not  do  the  same  thing  in 
an  abstract  discussion  Hke  the  present.  But  there 
would  be  no  real  reason  for  your  shutting  one  eye, 
since  both  eyes  have  the  same  field  of  vision,  and 
since  the  nature  of  things,  which  you  declare  to  be 
possessed  of  wisdom,  has  willed  that  we  should 
possess  two  windows  pierced  from  the  mind  to  the 
eyes.  You  did  not  really  feel  confident  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  divine  existence  was  as  self-evident 
as  you  could  wish,  and  for  that  reason  you  attempted 
to  prove  it  with  a  number  of  arguments.  For  my  part 
a  single  argument  would  have  sufficedj  namely  that 
it  lias  been  handed  down  to  us  by  our  forefathers. 
But  you  despise  authority,  and  fight  your  battles 
10  with  the  weapon  of  reason.  Give  permission  there- 
fore  for  my  reason  to  join  issue  with  yours. 

"  You  adduce  all  these  arguments  to  prove  that 
the  gods  exist,  and  by  arguing  you  render  doubtful 
a  matter  which  in  my  opinion  admits  of  no  doubt  at 
all.     For  I  have  committed  to  memory  not  only  the  xottrue 
number  but  also  the  order  of  your  arguments.    The  t|iat  the 
first  was  that  when  we  look  up  at  the  sky,  we  at  once  heaUns 
perceive  that  some  power  exists  whereby  the  heavenly  if|i*^gf\°  * 
bodies  are  governed.    And  from  this  you  went  on  to  r.od  of 

QUOte«:  Nature;and 

4"'^'-^      •  common 

a  Book  II    4  beliefis 

r>ooK  11.  4.  uareliable. 

295 


CICERO 

aspice  hoc  sublime  candens,  quem  invocant  omnes  lovem ; 

11  quasi  vero  quisquani  nostrum  istum  potius  quam 
Capitolinum  lovem  appellet,  aut  hoc  perspicuum  sit 
constetque  inter  omnis,  eos  esse  deos  quos  tibi  Vel- 
leius  multique  praeterea  ne  animantis  quidem  esse 
concedant.  Grave  etiam  argumentum  tibi  videbatur 
quod  opinio  de  dis  inmortalibus  et  omnium  esset  et 
cotidie  cresceret :  placet  igitur  tantas  res  opinione 
stultorum  iudicari,  vobis  praesertim  qui  illos  insanos 
esse  dicatis  ?  V.  '  At  enim  praesentis  videmus  deos, 
ut  apud  Ptegillum  Postumius,  in  Salaria  Vatinius  ' ; 
nescio  quid  etiam  de  Locrorum  apud  Sagram  proelio. 
Quos  igitur  tu  Tyndaridas  appellabas,  id  est  homines 
homine  natos,  et  quos  Homerus,  qui  recens  ab  illorum 
aetate  fuit,  sepultos  esse  dicit  Lacedaemone,  eos  tu 
cantheriis  albis  nullis  calonibus  ob  viam  Vatinio  ve- 
nisse  existimas  et  victoriam  popuU  Romani  Vatinio 
potius  homini  rustico  quam  M.  Catoni  qui  tum  erat 
princeps  nuntiavisse  ?  Ergo  et  illud  in  sihce  quod 
hodie  apparet  apud  Rcgillum  tamquam  vestigium  un- 

12  gulae.  Castoris  equi  credis  esse  ?  Nonne  mavis  illud 
credere  quod  probari  potest,  animos  praeclarorum 
hominum,  quales  isti  Tyndaridae  fuerunt,  divinos 
esse  et  aeternos,  quam  eos  qui  semel  cremati  essent 

"  i.e.^  the  heavenly  bodies.  "  Buok  II.  6. 

296 


rumour. 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  iv.— v. 

Behold  this  dazzling  vault  of  heaven,  which  all  mankind 
as  Jove  invoke ; 

11  just  as  if  anyone  among  us  really  gave  the  name  of 
Jove  to  your  heaven  rather  than  to  Jove  of  the 
Capitol,  or  as  if  it  were  self-evident  and  universally 
agreed  that  those  beings  "  are  divine  whom  Velleius 
and  many  others  beside  will  not  even  grant  you  to  be 
ahve  at  all !  Also  you  thought  it  a  weighty  argument 
that  the  belief  in  the  immortal  gods  is  universally 
held  and  is  spreading  every  day.  Then  is  anybody 
content  that  questions  of  such  moment  should  be 
decided  by  the  behefs  of  the  foohsh  ?  and  particularly 
yourselves,  who  say  that  all  the  fooHsh  are  mad  ? 

V.  "  But  you  say^  that  the  gods  appear  to  us  in  Thestories 
bodily  presence — forinstance,  they  did  to  Postumius  apfeadng 
at  Lake  Reofillus  and  to  Vatinius  on  the  Via  Salaria  ;  are  mere 
and  also  some  story  or  other  about  the  battle  ot 
the  Locrians  on  the  Sagra.  Then  do  you  really  think 
that  the  beings  whom  you  call  the  sons  of  Tyndareus, 
that  is  mortal  men  of  mortal  parentage,  and  whom 
Homer,  who  lived  not  long  after  their  period,  states 
to  have  been  buried  at  Sparta,  came  riding  on  white 
hacks  with  no  retainers,  and  met  Vatinius,  and 
selected  a  rough  ccuntryman  hke  him  to  whom  to 
bring  the  news  of  a  great  national  victory,  instead  of 
Marcus  Cato,  who  was  the  chief  senator  at  the  time  ? 
Well  then,  do  you  also  beheve  that  the  mark  in  the 
rock  resembhng  a  hoof-print,  to  be  seen  at  the  present 
day  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Regillus,  was  made  by 

12  Castor's  horse  ?  Would  you  not  prefer  to  beheve  the 
perfectly  credible  doctrine  that  the  souls  of  famous 
men,  hke  the  sons  of  Tyndareus  you  speak  of,  are 
divine  and  Hve  for  ever,  rather  than  that  men  who 
had  been  once  for  ail  burnt  on  a  funeral  pyre  were 

297 


CICERO 

equitare  et  in  acie  pugnare  potuisse  ?  aut  si  hoc  fieri 
potuisse  dicis,  doceas  oportet  quo  modo,  nec  fabellas 
aniles  proferas." 

13  Tum  Lucilius  "  An  tibi  "  inquit  "  fabellae  vi- 
dentur  ?  Nonne  ab  A.  Postumio  aedem  Castori  et 
Polluci  in  foro  dedicatam,  nonne  senatus  consultum 
de  Vatinio  vides  ?  Nam  de  Sagra  Graecorum  etiam 
est  volgare  proverbium,  qui  quae  adfirmant  certiora 
esse  dicunt  quam  illa  quae  apud  Sagram.  His  igitur 
auctoribus  nonne  debes  moveri  ?  " 

Tum  Cotta  "  Rumoribus  "  inquit  "  mecum  pugnas, 
Balbe,  ego  autem  a  te  rationes  requiro  .  .  .^ 

14  VI.  "...  sequuntur  quae  futura  sunt ;  efFugere 
enim  nemo  id  potest  quod  futurum  est.  Saepe  autem 
ne  utile  quidem  est  scire  quid  futurum  sit ;  miserum 
est  enim  nihil  proficientem  angi  nec  habere  ne  spei 
quidem  extremum  et  tamen  commune  solacium,  prae- 
sertim  cum  vos  iidem  fato  fieri  dicatis  omnia,  quod 
autem  semper  ex  omni  aeternitate  verum  fuerit  id 
esse  fatum  ;  quid  igitur  iuvat  aut  quid  adfert  ad 
cavendum  scire  aliquid  futurum,  cum  id  certe  futurum 
sit  ?  Unde  porro  ista  divinatio  ?  Quis  invenit  fissum 
iecoris,  quis  cornicis  cantum  notavit,  quis  sortis  ? 
Quibus  ego  credo,  nec  possum  Atti  Navii  quem  com- 
memorabas  lituum  contemnere ;  sed  qui  ista  intel- 

^  lacunam  signavit  Victorius. 

'  A  part  of  Cotta's  argument  has  here  been  lost,  including 
a  transition  to  the  subject  of  prophecies  and  presentiments. 
C/.  infr.  16  and  Book  II.  7.  '  Book  II.  9. 

298 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  v.— vi. 

able  to  ride  on  horseback  and  fight  in  a  battle  ?  Or 
if  you  maintain  that  this  was  possible,  then  you  have 
got  to  explain  how  it  was  possible,  and  not  merely 
bring  forward  old  wives'  tales." 

13  "  Do  you  really  think  them  old  wives'  tales  ?  " 
rejoined  Lucihus.  "  Are  you  not  aware  of  the  temple 
in  the  forum  dedicated  to  Castor  and  Pollux  by  Aulus 
Postumius,  or  of  the  resolution  of  the  senate  concern- 
ing  Vatinius  ?  As  for  the  Sagra,  the  Greeks  actually 
have  a  proverbial  saying  about  it  :  when  they  make 
an  assertion  they  say  that  it  is  *  more  certain  than 
the  affair  on  the  Sagra.'  Surely  their  authority  must 
carry  w^eight  with  you  ?  " 

"  Ah,  Balbus,"  rephed  Cotta,  "  you  combat  me 
with  hearsay  for  your  weapon,  but  what  I  ask  of  you 
is  proof.  .  .  ." 

14  VI.  "...  the  events  that  are  going  to  happen  Divination 
follow  ;  for  no  one  can  escape  what  is  going  to  happen.  wouid^be^"* 
But  often  it  is  not  even  an  advantage  to  know  what  is  useiess,  and 
going  to  happen  ;  for  it  is  miserable  to  suffer  unavail-  prove°the 
ins^  torments,  and  to  lack  even  the  last,  yet  universal,  so^^' 

6Xisti6DC6 

consolation  of  hope,  especially  when  your  school 
also  asserts  that  all  events  are  fated,  fate  mean- 
ing  that  which  has  always  from  all  eternity  been 
true  :  what  good  is  it  therefore  to  know  that  some- 
thing  is  going  to  happen,  or  how  does  it  help  us  to 
avoid  it,  when  it  certainly  will  happen  ?  Moreover 
whence  was  your  art  of  divination  derived  ?  Who 
found  out  the  cleft  in  the  Uver  ?  Who  took  note  of  the 
raven*s  croaking,  or  the  way  in  which  the  lots  fall  ? 
Not  that  I  don't  beheve  in  these  things,  or  care  to 
scoff  at  Attus  Navius's  crosier  of  which  you  were 
speaking  *  ;  but  how  did  these  modes  of  divination 
come  to  be  understood  ?    this  is  what  the  philosophers 

299 


CICERO 

lecta  sint  a  philosophis  debeo  discere,  praesertim  cum 

15  plurimis  de  rebus  divini^  isti  mentiantur.  '  At  medici 
quoque  '  (ita  enim  dicebas)  *  saepe  falluntur.'  Quid 
simile  medicina,  cuius  ego  rationem  \ddeo,  et  divlna- 
tio,  quae  unde  oriatur  non  intellego  ?  Tu  autem 
etiam  Deciorum  devotionibus  placatos  deos  esse 
censes.  Quae  fuit  eorum  tanta  iniquitas  ut  placari 
populo  Romano  non  possent  nisi  viri  tales  occidissent? 
Consilium  illud  imperatorium  fuit,  quod  Graeci 
o-rpaT-qyrjixa  appellant,  sed  eorum  imperatorum  qui 
patriae  consulerent  vitae  non  parcerent ;  rebantur 
enim  fore  ut  exercitus  imperatorem  equo  incitato  se 
in  hostem  inmittentem  persequeretur,  id  quod  evenit. 
Nam  Fauni  vocem  equidem  numquam  audivi  :  tibi 
si  audivisse  te  dicis  credam,  etsi  Faunus  omnino  quid 
sit  nescio.  VII.  Non  igitur  adhuc,  quantum  quidem 
in  te  est,  Balbe,  intellego  deos  esse  ;  quos  equidem 
credo  esse,  sed  nihil  docent  Stoici. 

16  "  Nam  Cleanthes  ut  dicebas  quattuor  modis  forma- 
tas  in  animis  hominum  putat  deorum  esse  notiones. 
Unus  ex  his  is''  modus  est  de  quo  satis  dixi,  qui  est 
susceptus  ex  praesensione  rerum  futurarum  ;  alter 
ex  perturbationibus  tempestatum  et  reliquis  motibus; 
tertius  ex  commoditate  rerum  quas  percipimus  et 
copia ;  quartus  ex  astrorum  ordine  caehque  constantia. 
De    praesensione    diximus.      De    perturbationibus 

^  d^t.  :  divinis  A,  B. 
*  Dieckhoff:  unus  is  A^  unus  ex  his  B. 

«  Book  II.  12.  »  Book  II.  6. 

800 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  vi.— vii. 

miist  teach  me,  especially  as  your  diviners  tell  such 

15  a  pack  of  lies.  '  Well,  but  physicians  also  are  often 
wrong ' — this  was  your  argument."  But  what  re- 
semblance  is  there  between  medicine,  whose  rational 
basis  I  can  see,  and  divination,  the  source  of  which 
I  cannot  understand  ?  Again,  you  think  that  the 
gods  were  actually  propitiated  by  the  sacrifice  of  the 
Decii.  But  how  can  the  gods  have  been  so  unjust 
that  their  wrath  against  the  Roman  people  could 
only  be  appeased  by  the  death  of  heroes  Hke  the 
Decii  ?  No,  the  sacrifice  of  the  Decii  was  a  device  of 
generalship,  or  straiegema  as  it  is  termed  in  Greek, 
though  a  device  for  generals  who  were  ready  to  give 
their  lives  in  their  country's  service  ;  their  notion 
was  that  if  a  commander  rode  full  gallop  against  the 
foe  his  troops  would  follow  him,  and  so  it  proved.  As 
for  the  utterances  of  a  Faun,^  I  never  heard  one,  but 
if  you  say  you  have,  I  will  take  your  word  for  it,  al- 
though  what  on  earth  a  Faun  may  be  I  do  not  know. 
VII.  As  yet  therefore,  Balbus,  so  far  as  it  depends 
on  you  I  do  not  understand  the  divine  existence  ; 
I  beheve  in  it,  but  the  Stoics  do  not  in  the  least 
explain  it. 

16  "  As  for  Cleanthes,  his  view  is,  as  you  were  telling  invaiidityof 
us,  that  ideas  of  the  gods  are  formed  in  men's  minds  in  ar!uli,^ent' 
four  ways.    One  of  these  ways  I  have  sufRciently  dis-  from  the 
cussed,  the  one  derived  from  our  foreknowledge  of  fnlpiring 
future  events  ;  the  second  is  based  on  meteorological  pjienomena 
disturbances  and  the  other  changes  of  the  weather  ; 

the  third  on  the  utility  and  abundance  of  the  com- 
modities  which  are  at  our  disposal ;  and  the  fourth 
on  the  orderly  movements  of  the  stars  and  the  regu- 
larity  of  the  licavens.  About  foreknowledge  we  have 
spoken.    As  for  meteorological  disturbances  by  land 

301 


CICERO 

caelestibus   et  maritimis   et  terrenis  non  possumus 
dicere,  cum  ea  fiant,  non  esse  multos  qui  illa  metuant 

17  et  a  dis  inmortalibus  fieri  existument ;  sed  non  id 
quaeritur,  sintne  aliqui  qui  deos  esse  putent :  di  utrum 
sint  necne  sint  quaeritur.  Nam  reliquae  causae  quas 
Cleanthes  adfert,  quarum  una  est  de  commodorum 
quae  capimus  copia,  altera  de  temporum  ordine 
caelique  constantia,  tum  tractabuntur  a  nobis  cum 
disputabimus  de  providentia  deorum,  de  qua  plurima 

18  a  te,  Balbe,  dicta  sunt ;  eodemque  illa  etiam  differe- 
mus,  quod  Chrysippum  dicere  aiebas,  quoniam  esset 
ahquid  in  rerum  natura  quod  ab  homine  effici  non 
posset,  esse  aliquid  homine  melius,  quaeque  in  domo 
pulchra  cum  pulchritudine  mundi  comparabas,  et 
cum  totius  mundi  convenientiam  consensumque 
adferebas  ;  Zenonisque  brevis  et  acutulas  con- 
clusiones  in  eam  partem  sermonis  quam  modo  dixi 
differemus,  eodemque  tempore  illa  omnia  quae  a  te 
physice  dicta  sunt  de  vi  ignea  deque  eo  calore  ex 
quo  omnia  generari  dicebas,  loco  suo  quaerentur  ; 
omniaque  quae  a  te  nudius  tertius  dicta  sunt,  cum 
docere  velles  deos  esse,  quare  et  mundus  universus  et 
sol  et  luna  et  stellae  sensum  ac  mentem  haberent, 

19  in  idem  tempus  reservabo.  A  te  autem  idem  illud 
etiam  atque  etiam  quaeram,  quibus  rationibus  tibi 
persuadeas  deos  esse." 

VIII.  Tum  Balbus  :    "  Equidem  attulisse  rationes 


302 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  vii.— viii. 

and  sea,  we  cannot  deny  that  there  are  many  people 
who  are  afraid  of  these  occurrences  and  think  them 

17  to  be  caused  by  the  immortal  gods  ;  but  the  question 
is  not,  are  there  any  people  who  think  that  the  gods 
exist, — the  question  is,  do  the  gods  exist  or  do  they 
not  ?  As  for  the  remaining  reasons  adduced  by 
Cleanthes,  the  one  derived  from  the  abundance  of  the 
commodities  bestowed  upon  us,  and  the  other  from 
the  ordered  sequence  of  the  seasons  and  the  regularity 
of  the  heavens,  we  will  treat  of  these  when  we  come 
to    discuss    divine    providence,    about    which    you, 

18  Balbus,  said  a  great  deal ;   and  we  defer  to  the  same  other 
time  the  argument  which  you  attributed  to  Chrys-  addiced  b^j 
ippus,  that  since  there  exists  something  in  the  uni-  Baibus 
verse  which  could  not  be  created  by  man,  some  being    ^  ® 
must  exist  of  a  higher  order  than  man  ;   as  also  your 
comparison  of  the  beautiful  furniture  in  a  house  with 

the  beauty  of  the  world,  and  your  reference  to  the 
harmony  and  common  purpose  of  the  whole  world  ; 
and  Zeno's  terse  and  pointed  little  syllogisms  mc 
will  postpone  to  that  part  of  my  discourse  which  I 
have  just  mentioned  ;  and  at  the  same  time  all  your 
arguments  of  a  scientific  nature  about  the  fiery  force 
and  heat  which  you  alleged  to  be  the  universal  source 
of  generation  shall  be  examined  in  their  place  ;  and 
all  that  you  said  the  day  before  yesterday,  when  at- 
tempting  to  prove  the  divine  existence,  to  show  that 
both  the  world  as  a  whole  and  the  sun  and  moon  and 
stars  possess  sensation  and  intelHgence,  I  will  kecp 

19  for  the  same  occasion.  But  the  question  I  shall  have 
to  ask  you  over  and  over  again,  as  before,  is  this  : 
what  are  your  reasons  for  believing  that  the  gods 
cxist .'' 

VIII.  "  Why,"  repHed  Balbus,  "  I  really  think  I 

303 


CICERO 

mihi  \ideor,  sed  eas  tu  ita  refellis  ut,  cum  me  inter- 
rogaturus  esse  \ideare  et  ego  me  ad  respondendum 
compararim,  repente  avertas  orationem  nec  des 
respondendi  locum.  Itaque  maximae  res  tacitae 
praeterierunt,  de  divinatione  de  fato,  quibus  de  quae- 
stionibus  tu  quidem  strictim  nostri  autem  multa 
solent  dicere,  sed  ab  hac  ea  quaestione  quae  nunc  in 
manibus  est  separantur  ;  quare  si  videtur  noli  agere 
confuse,  ut  hoc  explicemus  hac  disputatione  quod 
quaeritur." 

20  "  Optime  "  inquit  Cotta.  "  Itaque  quoniam  quattuor 
in  partes  totam  quaestionem  divisisti  de  primaque 
diximus,  consideremus  secundam  ;  quae  mihi  talis 
videtur  fuisse,  ut,  cum  ostendere  velles  quales  di 
essent,  ostenderes  nullos  esse.  A  consuetudine  enim 
oculorum  animum  abducere  difficillimum  dicebas ; 
sed,  cum  deo  nihil  praestantius  esset,  non  dubitabas 
quin  mundus  esset  deus,  quo  nihil  in  rerum  natura 
melius  esset.  Modo  possemus  eum  animantem 
cogitare,  vel  potius  ut  cetera  ocuHs  sic  animo  hoc 

21  cernere  !  Sed  cum  mundo  negas  quicquam  esse  melius, 
quid  dicis  meUus  ?  Si  pulchrius,  adsentior  ;  si  aptius 
ad  utihtates  nostras,  id  quocjue  adsentior  ;  sin  autem 
id  dicis,  nihil  esse  mundo  sapientius,  nullo  modo 
prorsus  adsentior,  non  quod  difficile  sit  mentem  ab 
304 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  viii. 

have  produced  my  reasons,  but  so  far  from  your  re- 
futing  them,  every  time  when  you  seem  to  be  on  the 
point  of  subjecting  me  to  an  examination  and  I  get 
ready  to  reply,  you  suddenly  switch  off  the  discussion, 
and  do  not  give  me  an  opportunity  of  answering. 
And  so  matters  of  the  first  importance  have  passed 
without  remark — such  as  divination,  and  fate,  sub- 
jects  which  you  dismiss  very  briefly,  whereas  our 
school  is  accustomed  to  say  a  great  deal  about  them, 
though  they  are  quite  distinct  from  the  topic  with 
which  we  are  now  deaUng.  Please  therefore  adopt  an 
orderly  mode  of  procedure,  and  in  this  debate  let  us 
clear  up  this  question  that  is  now  before  us." 

20  "  By  all  means,"  said  Cotta  ;    "  and  accordingly,  n.  The 
as  you  divided  the  whole  subject  into  four  parts,  and  ^^^Vifr^ 
we  have  spoken  about  the  first  part,  let  us  consider  (§§  20-64). 
the  second.     It  seems  to  me  to  have  amounted  to  i^^beantifui 
this  :   you  intended  to  show  what  the  gods  are  Hke,  but  why 
but  you  actually  showed  them  to  be  non-existent.  ^y^sel^^^ 
For  you  said  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  divert  the  mind 

from  its  association  with  the  eyes  ;  yet  you  did  not 
hesitate  to  argue  that,  since  nothing  is  more  excellent 
than  god,  the  world  must  be  god,  because  there  is 
nothing  in  the  universe  superior  to  the  world.  Yes, 
if  we  could  but  imagine  the  world  to  be  alive,  or 
rather,  if  we  could  but  discern  this  truth  with  our 
minds  exactly  as  we  see  external  objects  with  our 

21  eyes  !  But  when  you  say  that  nothing  is  superior  to 
the  world,  what  do  you  mean  by  superior  ?  If  you 
mean  more  beautiful,  I  agree  ;  if  more  suited  to  our 
convenience,  I  agree  to  that  too  ;  but  if  what  you 
mean  is  that  nothing  is  wiser  than  the  world,  I 
entirely  and  absolutely  disagree  ;  not  because  it 
is  difficult  to  divorce  the  mind  from  the  eyes,  but 

305 


CICERO 

oculis  sevocare,  sed  quo  magis  sevoco  eo  minus  id 
quod  tu  vis  possum  mente  comprehendere.  IX.  'Nihil 
est  mundo  mehus  in  rerum  natura.'  Ne  in  terris 
quidem  urbe  nostra  :  num  igitur  idcirco  in  urbe  esse 
rationem  cogitationem  mentem  putas,  aut,  quoniam 
non  sit,num  idcirco  existimas  formicam  anteponendam 
esse  huic  pulcherrumae  urbi,  quod  in  urbe  sensus  sit 
nullus,  in  formica  non  modo  sensus  sed  etiam  mens 
ratio  memoria  ?     Videre   oportet,  Balbe,   quid  tibi 

22  concedatur,  non  te  ipsum  quod  vehs  sumere.  Istum 
enim  locum  totum  illa  vetus  Zenonis  brevis  et  ut 
tibi  videbatur  acuta  conclusio  dilatavit.  Zeno  enim 
ita  concludit :  '  Quod  ratione  utitur  id  mehus  est  quam 
id  quod  ratione  non  utitur  ;   nihil  autem  mundo  me- 

23  hus  ;  ratione  igitur  mundus  utitur.'  Hoc  si  placet, 
iam  eflficies  ut  mundus  optime  hbrum  legere  videatur; 
Zenonis  enim  vestigiis  hoc  modo  rationem  poteris 
concludere  :  '  Quod  htteratum  est  id  est  mehus  quam 
quod  non  est  htteratum  ;  nihil  autem  mundo  mehus  ; 
htteratus  igitur  est  mundus.'  Isto  modo  etiam  diser- 
tus  et  quidem  mathematicus,  musicus,  omni  denique 
doctrina  eruditus,  postremo  philosophus.^  Saepe 
dixisti  nihil  fieri  nisi  ex  eo,  nec  iham  vim  esse  naturae 
ut  sui  dissimiha  pos>et  effingere  :  concedam  non 
modo  animantem  et  sapientem  esse  mundum  sed 
fidicinem  etiam  et  tubicinem,  quoniam  earum  quoque 
artium  homines   ex   eo  procreantur  ?     Nihil  igitur 

^  post  philosophus  addit  erit  mundus  det. 

•  The  text  is  certainly  corrupt,  being  self-contradictory 
and  contradicting  ii.  20. 
306 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  viii.— ix. 

because  the  more  I  do  so,  the  less  my  mind  succecds 
in  grasping  your  meaning.  IX.  *  There  is  nothing  in 
the  universe  superior  to  the  world.'  No  more  is  there 
anytliing  on  earth  superior  to  our  city  ;  but  you  do 
not  therefore  think  that  our  city  possesses  a  reasoning, 
thinking  mind  ?  or,  because  it  does  not,  you  do  not 
therefore  consider,  do  you,  that  an  ant  is  to  be 
rated  more  highly  than  this  supremely  beautiful 
city,  on  the  ground  that  a  city  does  not  possess  sensa- 
tion  whereas  an  ant  has  not  only  sensation,  but  also  a 
mind  that  reasons  and  remembers  ?  You  ought  to  see 
what  you  can  get  your  opponent  to  admit,  Balbus,  not 

22  take  for  granted  anything  you  hke.  The  whole  of  zenoprovf 
this  topic  of  yours  was  expanded  "  tersely,  and  as  you  *°°  m^ich. 
thought  effectively,  by  the  famous  old  syllogism  of 

Zeno.  Zeno  puts  the  argument  thus  :  '  That  which 
is  rational  is  superior  to  that  which  is  not  rational ; 
but  nothing  is  superior  to  the  world  ;    therefore  the 

23  world  is  rational.'  If  you  accept  this  conclusion,  you 
will  go  on  to  prove  that  the  world  is  perfectly  able  to 
read  a  book  ;  for  following  in  Zeno's  footsteps  you 
will  be  able  to  construct  a  syllogism  as  follows  : 
'  That  which  is  Uterate  is  superior  to  that  which  is 
ilHterate  ;  but  nothing  is  superior  to  the  world  ; 
therefore  the  world  is  hterate.'  By  this  mode  of 
reasoning  the  world  will  also  be  an  orator,  and  even 
a  mathematician,  a  musician,  and  in  fact  an  expert  in 
every  branch  of  learning,  in  fine  a  philosopher.  You 
kept  repeating  that  the  world  is  the  sole  source  of  all 
created  things,  and  that  nature's  capacity  does  not 
include  the  power  to  create  things  unhke  herself : 
am  I  to  admit  that  the  world  is  not  only  a  Hving  being, 
and  wise,  but  also  a  harper  and  a  flute-player,  be- 
cause  it  gives  birth  also  to  men  skilled  in  these  arts  ? 

307 


CICERO 

adfert  pater  iste  Stoicorum  quare  mundum  ratione 
uti  putemus,  ne  cur  animantem  quidem  esse.  Non 
est  igitur  mundus  deus  ;  et  tamen  nihil  est  eo  melius, 
nihil  est  enim  eo  pulchrius,  nihil  salutarius  nobis, 
nihil  ornatius  aspectu  motuque  constantius. 

"  Quodsi  mundus  universus  non  est  deus,  ne  stellae 
quidem,  quas  tu  innumerabihs  in  deorum  numero 
reponebas.  Quarum  te  cursus  aequabiles  aeternique 
delectabant,  nec  mehercule   iniuria,  sunt  enim  ad- 

24  mirabili  incredibihque  constantia.  Sed  non  omnia, 
Balbe,  quae  cursus  certos  et  constantis  habent  ea 
deo  potius  tribuenda  sunt  quam  naturae.  X.  Quid 
Chalcidico  Euripo  in  motu  identidem  reciprocando 
putas  fieri  posse  constantius,  quid  freto  SiciHensi, 
quid  Oceani  fervore  illis  in  locis 

Europam  Libj-amque  rapax  ubi  dividit  unda  ? 
Quid  ?  aestus  maritimi  vel  Hispanienses  vel  Britan- 
nici  eorumque  certis  temporibus  vel  accessus  vel 
recessus  sine  deo  fieri  non  possunt  ?  Vide,  quaeso, 
si  omnes  motus  omniaque  quae  certis  temporibus 
ordinem  suum  conservant  divina  dicimus,  ne  tertianas 
quoque  febres  et  quartanas  divinas  esse  dicendum  sit, 
quarum  reversione  et  motu  quid  potest  esse  con- 
stantius  ?     Sed  omnium  talium  rerum  ratio  reddenda 

25  est  ;  quod  vos  cum  facere  non  potestis,  tamquam  in 
aram  confugitis  ad  deum. 

"  Et  Chrysippus  tibi  acute  dicere  videbatur,  homo 

308 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  ix.— x. 

Well  then,  your  father  of  the  Stoic  school  really 
adduces  no  reason  why  we  should  think  that  the 
world  is  rational,  or  even  alive.  Therefore  the  world 
is  not  god  ;  and  nevertheless  there  is  nothing  superior 
to  the  world,  for  there  is  nothing  more  beautiful  than 
it,  nothing  more  conducive  to  our  health,  nothing 
more  ornate  to  the  view,  or  more  regular  in  motion. 

"  And  if  the  world  as  a  whole  is  not  god,  neither  xhe 
are  the  stars,  which  in  all  their  countless  numbers  you  oahe^Srs 
wanted  to  reckon  as  gods,  enlarging  with  delight  the  work 
upon  their  uniform  and  everlasting  movements,  and  ' 
I  protest  with  good  reason,  for  they  display  a  mar- 

24  vellous  and  extraordinary  regularity.  But  not  all 
things,  Balbus,  that  have  fixed  and  regular  courses 
are  to  be  accredited  to  a  god  rather  than  to  nature. 
X.  What  occurrence  do  you  think  could  possibly  be 
more  regular  than  the  repeated  alternation  of  flow  in 
the  Euripus  at  Chalcis  ?  or  in  the  Straits  of  Messina  ? 
or  than  the  eddying  ocean-currents  in  the  region 
U'here 

Europe  and  Libya  by  the  hurrying  wave 
Are  sundered  ? 

Cannot  the  tides  on  the  coasts  of  Spain  or  Britain  ebb 
and  flow  at  fixed  intervals  of  time  without  a  god's  in- 
tervention  ?  Why,  if  all  motions  and  all  occurrences 
that  preserve  a  constant  periodic  regularity  are  de- 
clared  to  be  divine,  pray  shall  we  not  be  obhged  to 
say  that  tertian  and  quartan  agues  are  divine  too,  for 
nothing  can  be  more  regular  than  the  process  of  their 
recurrence  ?      But    all   such   phenomena   call   for    a 

25  rational  explanation  ;  and  in  your  inabiHty  to  give 
such  an  explanation  you  fly  for  refuge  to  a  god. 

"  Also  you  admired  the  cleverness  of  an  argument  Chrys- 
of  Chrysippus,  who  was  undoubtedly  an  adroit  and  arguments 

309 


CICERO 

sine  dubio  versutus  et  callidus  (versutos  eos  appello 
quorum  celeriter  mens  versatur,  callidos  autem  quo- 
rum  tamquam  manus  opere  sic  animus  usu  con- 
calluit)  ;  is  igitur  *  Si  aliquid  est '  inquit  '  quod  homo 
efficere  non  possit,  qui  id  efficit  melior  est  homine  ; 
homo  autem  haec  quae  in  mundo  sunt  efficere  non 
potest  ;  qui  potuit  igitur  is  praestat  homini  ;  homini 
autem  praestare  quis  possit  nisi  deus  ?  est  igitur 
deus.'     Haec  omnia  in  eodem  quo  illa  Zenonis  errore 

26  versantur  ;  quid  enim  sit  mehus,  quid  praestabihus, 
quid  inter  naturam  et  rationem  intersit,  non  distin- 
guitur.  Idemque,  si  dei  non  sint,  negat  esse  in  omni 
natura  quicquam  homine  mehus  ;  id  autem  putare 
quemquam  hominem,  nihil  homine  esse  mehus,  sum- 
mae  adrogantiae  censet  esse.  Sit  sane  adrogantis 
pluris  se  putare  quam  mundum  ;  at  illud  non  modo 
non  adrogantis  sed  potius  prudentis,  intellegere  se 
habere  sensum  et  rationem,  haec  eadem  Orionem  et 
Caniculam  non  habere.  Et  '  Si  domus  pulchra  sit, 
intellegamus  eam  dominis  *  inquit  '  aedificatam  esse, 
non  muribus  ;  sic  igitur  mundum  deorum  domum  ex- 
istimare  debemus.'  Ita  prorsus  existimarem,  si  illum 
aedificatum  esse..  non  quem  ad  modum  docebo  a 
natura  conformatum  putarem. 

27  XI.  "  At  enim  quaerit  apud  Xenophontem  Socrates 
unde  animum  arripuerimus  si  nullus  fuerit  in  mundo. 
Et  ego  quaero  unde  orationem  unde  numeros  unde 

"  Callidus,  '  clever,'  is  actually  derived  from  callumt 
*  hardened  skin,'  as  Cicero  su^gests,  and  so  means  '  practised,' 
*expert.' 

^  The  passage  here  anticipated  is  lost.  •  See  ii.  18. 

SIO 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  x.— xi. 

hardy  °  thinker  (I  apply  the  adjective  *  adroit  '  to  as  to  man'i 

persons  of  nimble  wit,  and  '  hardy  '  to  those  whose  equaUy"  ^ 

minds  have  grown  hard  with   use   as  the  hand  is  invaiid. 

hardened  by  work) ;   well,  Chrysippus  argues  thus  : 

*  If  anything  exists  that  man  is  not  capable  of  creat- 

ing,  he  that  creates  that  thing  is  superior  to  man  ; 

but  man  is  not  capable  of  creating  the  objects  that  we 

see  in  the  world  ;  therefore  he  that  was  capable  of  so 

doing  surpasses  man  ;    but  who  could  surpass  man 

save  god  ?  therefore  god  exists.'    The  whole  of  this 

is  involved  in  the  same  mistake  as  the  argument  of 

26  Zcno ;  no  definition  is  given  of  the  meaning  of 
'  superior  '  and  '  more  excellent,'  or  of  the  distinction 
between  nature  and  reason.  Chrysippus  furthermore 
declares  that,  if  there  be  no  gods,  the  natural  universe 
contains  nothing  superior  to  man  ;  but  for  any  man  to 
think  that  there  is  nothing  superior  to  man  he  deems 
to  be  the  height  of  arrogance.  Let  us  grant  that  it  is 
a  mark  of  arrogance  to  value  oneself  more  highly  than 
the  world  ;  but  not  merely  is  it  not  a  mark  of  arro- 
gance,  rather  is  it  a  mark  of  wisdom,  to  realize  that 
one  is  a  conscious  and  rational  being,  and  that  Orion 
and  Canicula  are  not.  Again,  he  says  '  If  we  saw  a 
handsome  mansion,  we  should  infer  that  it  was  built 
for  its  masters  and  not  for  mice  ;  so  therefore  we 
must  deem  the  world  to  be  the  mansion  of  the  gods.' 
Assuredly  I  should  so  deem  it  if  I  thought  it  had  been 
built  hke  a  house,  and  not  constructed  by  nature,  as 

I  shall  show  that  it  was.^  refu?ed1 

27  XI.  "ButthenyoutellmethatSocratesinXenophon  man'» 

asks  the  question,  if  the  world  contains  no  rational  dueto 
soul,  where  did  we  pick  up  ours  ? "     And  I  too  ask  the  ^^^^^^'  ^^^ 
question,  where  did  we  get  the  faculty  of  speech,  iiature'8 
the  knowledge  of  numbers,  the  art  of  music  ?  unless  hamonj. 

311 


CICERO 

cantus  ;  nisi  vero  loqui  solem  cum  luna  putamus  cum 
propius  accesserit,  aut  ad  harmoniam  canere  mundum 
ut  Pythagoras  existimat.  Naturae  ista  sunt,  Balbe, 
naturae  non  artificiose  ambulantis  ut  ait  Zeno,  quod 
quidem  quale  sit,  iam  videbimus,  sed  omnia  cientis 

28  et  agitantis  motibus  et  mutationibus  suis.  Itaque  illa 
mihi  placebat  oratio  de  convenientia  consensuque  na- 
turae,  quam  quasi  cognatione  continuata  conspirare 
dicebas  :  illud  non  probabam,  quod  negabas  id  acci- 
dere  potuisse  nisi  ea  uno  divino  spiritu  contineretur. 
Illa  vero  cohaeret  et  permanet  naturae  viribus,  non 
deorum,  estque  in  ea  iste  quasi  consensus,  quam  crv/x- 
Trddetav  Graeci  vocant,  sed  ea  quo  sua  sponte  maior 
est  eo  minus  divina  ratione  fieri  existimanda  est. 

29  XII.  "  Illa  autem,  quae  Carneades  adferebat,  quem 
ad  modum  dissolvitis  ?  Si  nuUum  corpus  inmortale  sit, 
nullum  esse  corpus^  sempiternum  ;  corpus  autem  in- 
mortale  nuUum  esse,  ne  individuum  quidem  nec  quod 
dirimi  distrahive  non  possit.  Cumque  omne  animal 
patibilem  naturam  habeat,  nullum  est  eorum  quod 
efFugiat  accipiendi  aUquid  extrinsecus,  id  est  quasi 
ferendi  et  patiendi,  necessitatem,  et  si  omne  animal 
tale  est  inmortale  nullum  est.  Ergo  itidem,  si  omne 
animal  secari  ac  dividi  potest,  nullum  est  eorum  in- 
dividuum,  nuUum  aeternum  ;  atqui  omne  animal  ad 
accipiendam  vim  externam  et  ferundam  paratum  est ; 

*  corpus:  animal  (auctore  Madvig)  Balter. 

"  For  the  '  music  of  the  spheres  '  cf.  ii.  19,  and  Plato,  Bep. 
X.  617  B.  "  See  ii.  57.  «  i.  54. 

312 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xi.— xii. 

indeed  we  suppose  that  the  sun  holds  conversation 
with  the  moon  when  their  courses  approximate,  or 
that  the  world  makes  a  harmonious  music,**  as  Pyth- 
agoras  believes.  These  faculties,  Balbus,  are  the  gifts 
of  nature — not  nature  '  walking  in  craftsmanhke 
manner  '  as  Zeno  ^  says  (and  what  this  means  we 
will  consider  in  a  moment),  but  nature  by  its  own 
motions  and  mutations  imparting  motion  and  activity 

28  to  all  things.  And  so  I  fully  agreed  with  the  part  of 
your  discourse  ^  that  dealt  with  nature's  punctual 
regularity,  and  what  you  termed  its  concordant 
interconnexion  and  correlation  ;  but  I  could  not 
accept  your  assertion  that  this  could  not  have  come 
about  were  it  not  held  together  by  a  single  divine 
breath.  On  the  contrary,  the  system's  coherence  and 
persistence  is  due  to  nature's  forces  and  not  to  divine 
power  ;  she  does  possess  that  '  concord  '  (the  Greek 
term  is  sympatheia)  of  which  you  spoke,  but  the  greater 
this  is  as  a  spontaneous  growth,  the  less  possible  is  it 
to  suppose  that  it  was  created  by  divine  reason. 

29  XII.  "  Then,  how  does  your  school  refute  the  follow-  carneades 
ing  arguments  of  Carneades  ?  If  no  body  is  not  Hable  proved  that 
to  death,  no  body  can  be  everlasting  ;   but  no  body  tiiing  1^'"° 
is  not  Hable  to  death,  nor  even  indiscerptible  nor  in-  "Jia^use  a ) 
capable  of  decomposition  and  dissolution.    And  every  corporeai,' 
Hvlng  thing  is  by  its  nature  capable  of  feeHng  ;  there-  sionabie'^^^* 
fore  there  is  no  Hving  thing  that  can  escape  the  un- 
avoidable  HabiHty  to  undergo  impressions  from  ^vith- 

out,  that  is  to  suffer  and  to  feel  ;  and  if  every  Hving 
thing  is  Hable  to  suffering,  no  Hving  thing  is  not  Hable 
to  death.  Therefore  Hkewise,  if  every  Hving  thing 
can  be  cut  up  into  parts,  no  Hving  thing  is  indivisible, 
and  none  is  everlasting.  But  every  Hving  thing  is  so 
construeted  as  to  be  Hable  to  undergo  and  to  suffer 

313 


CICERO 

mortale  igitur  omne  animal  et  dissolubile  et  dividuum 

30  sit  necesse  est.  Ut  enim,^  si  omnis  cera  commutabilis 
esset,  nihil  esset  cereum  quod  commutari  non  posset, 
item  nihil  argenteum  nihil  aeneum  si  commutabilis 
esset  natura  argenti  et  aeris  —  similiter  igitur,  si 
omnia  [quae  sunt]''  e  quibus  cuncta  constant  muta- 
biHa  sunt,  nullum  corpus  esse  potest  non  mutabile  ; 
mutabiUa  autem  sunt  illa  ex  quibus  omnia  constant, 
ut  vobis  videtur  ;  omne  igitur  corpus  mutabile  est. 
At  si  esset  corpus  aUquod  inmortale,  non  esset  omne 
mutabile.  Ita  efficitur  ut  omne  corpus  mortale  sit. 
Etenim  omne  corpus  aut  aqua  aut  aer  aut  ignis  aut 
terra  est,  aut  id  quod  est  concretum  ex  his  aut  ex 
ahqua   parte  eorum ;    horum  autem   nihil   est  quin 

31  intereat ;  nam  et  terrenum  omne  dividitur,  et  umor 
ita  molhs  est  ut  facile  premi  conhdique  possit,  ignis 
vero  et  aer  omni  pulsu  facilHme  pelHtur  naturaque 
cedens  est  maxume  et  dissupabihs ;  praetereaque 
omnia  haec  tum  intereunt  cum  in  naturam  aham 
convertuntur,  quod  fit  cum  terra  in  aquam  se  vertit 
et  cum  ex  aqua  oritur  aer,  ex  aere  aether,  cumque 
eadem  vicissim  retro  commeant ;  quodsi  ea  inter- 
eunt  e  quibus  constat  omne  animal,  nullum  est  animal 

32  sempiternum.  XIII.  Et  ut  haec  omittamus,  tamen 
animal  nullum  inveniri  potest  quod  neque  natum 
umquam  sit  et  semper  sit  futurum  ;  omne  enim  animal 
sensus  habet ;    sentit  igitur  et  caUda  et  frigida  et 

*  necesset  enim  'pr.  B  :   necesse  est.   etenim  ci.  Plasherg. 

*  secl.  Schoniann  :  si  omnia  e  quibus  quae  sunt  cuncta 
constant  Ileindorf:  si  ea  e  quibus  constant  omnia  quaesunt 
Mayor :  lacunam  signcU  Plasherg, 

314 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xii.— xiii. 

violence   from   \vithout ;    it   therefore   follows   that 
every  hving  thing  is  hable  to  death  and  dissolution, 

30  and  is  divisible.    For  just  as,  if  all  wax  were  capable 
of  change,  nothing  made  of  wax  would  be  incapable 
of  change,  and  hkewise  nothing  made  of  silver  or 
bronze  if  silver  and  bronze  were  substances  capable  (iii.)cora. 
of  change,  therefore  similarly,  if  all  the  elements  of  ei^^nents 
which  all  thin^s  are  composed  are  hable  to  chang-e,  tiiemseives 

,  111  111  1  1  ^       mntableand 

tnere  can  be  no  body  not  hable  to  change  ;  but  the  destruct- 
elements  of  which,  according  to  your  school,  all  things  '^^®' 
are  composed  are  hable  to  change  ;  therefore  every 
body  is  hable  to  change.  But  if  any  body  were  not 
hable  to  death,  then  not  every  body  would  be  hable 
to  change.  Hence  it  follows  that  every  body  is  hable 
to  death.  In  fact  every  body  consists  of  either  water 
or  air  or  fire  or  earth,  or  of  a  combination  of  these  ele- 
ments  or  some  of  them  ;  but  none  of  these  elements 

31  is  exempt  from  destruction ;  for  everything  of  an 
earthy  nature  is  divisible,  and  also  hquid  substance 
is  soft  and  therefore  easily  crushed  and  broken  up, 
while  fire  and  air  are  very  readily  impelled  by  impacts 
of  all  kinds,  and  are  of  a  consistency  that  is  extremely 
yielding  and  easily  dissipated  ;  and  besides,  all  these 
elements  perish  when  they  undergo  transmutation, 
which  occurs  when  earth  turns  into  water,  and  when 
from  water  arises  air,  and  from  air  aether,  and  wlien 
alternately  the  same  processes  are  reversed ;  but  if 
those  elements  of  which  every  hving  thing  consists 

32  can  perish,  no  h\dng  thing  is  everlasting.    XIII.  And,  :iv.)sus- 
to  drop  this  hne  of  argument,  nevertheless  no  hving  piLsure° 
thing  can  be  found  which  either  was  never  born  or  ^°*^  P*''^ 
will  hve  for  ever.     For  every  hving  thing  has  sensa- 

tion  ;  therefore  it  perceives  both  heat  and  cold,  both 
sweetness  and  sourness — it  cannot  tlirough  any  of  the 

315 


CICERO 

dulcia  et  amara  necpotest  uUo  sensu  iucunda  accipere, 
non  accipere  contraria  ;  si  igitur  voluptatis  sensum 
capit,  doloris  etiam  capit ;  quod  autem  dolorem 
accipit,  id  accipiat  etiam  interitum  necesse  est ;  omne 

33  igitur  animal  confitendum  est  esse  mortale.  Praeter- 
ea,  si  quid  est  quod  nec  voluptatem  sentiat  nec 
dolorem,  id  animal  esse  non  potest,  sin  autem  quid 
animal  est,  id  illa  necesse  est  sentiat ;  et  quod  ea 
sentit  non  potest  esse  aeternum  ;  et  omne  animal 
sentit ;  nullum  igitur  animal  aeternum  est.  Praeter- 
ea  nuUum  potest  esse  animal  in  quo  non  et 
adpetitio  sit  et  declinatio  naturalis  ;  appetuntur 
autem  quae  secundum  naturam  sunt,  declinantur  con- 
traria  ;  et  omne  animal  adpetit  quaedam  et  tugit  a 
quibusdam,  quod  autem  refugit,  id  contra  naturam 
est,  et  quod  est  contra  naturam,  id  habet  vim  inter- 
imendi ;    omne    ergo    animal    intereat   necesse   est. 

34  Innumerabilia  sunt  ex  quibus  effici  cogique  possit 
nihil  esse  quod  sensum  habeat  quin  id  intereat ;  et- 
enim  ea  ipsa  quae  sentiuntur,  ut  frigus  ut  calor  ut 
voluptas  ut  dolor  ut  cetera,  cum  amphficata  sunt 
interimunt ;  nec  uhum  animal  est  sine  sensu ; 
nullum  igitur  animal  aeternum  est.  XIV.  Etenim 
aut  simplex  est  natura  animantis,  ut  vel  terrena  sit 
vel  ignea  vel  animahs  vel  umida,  quod  quale  sit  ne 
inteUegi  quidem  potest;  aut  concreta  ex  pluribus 
316 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xiii.— xiv. 

senses  receive  pleasant  sensations  and  not  receive 
their  opposites  ;  if  therefore  it  is  capable  of  feeHng 
pleasure,  it  is  also  capable  of  feehng  pain  ;  but  a 
being  which  can  experience  pleasure  must  necessarily 
also  be  hable  to  destruction  ;  therefore  it  must  be 
admitted  that  every  hving  thing  is  hable  to  death. 

33  Besides,  if  there  be  anything  that  cannot  feel  either  (v.)  po3- 
pleasure  or  pain,  this  cannot  be  a  hving  thing,  and  i^fkesand 
if  on   the   other  hand  anything  is  ahve,  this  must  disjikes, 
necessarily  feel  pleasure  and  pain  ;    and  that  which  disiikes  is 
feels  pleasure  and  pain  cannot  be  everlasting  ;    and  destmctive. 
exery  hving  thing  feels  them  ;    therefore  no  hving 

thing  is  everlasting.  Besides,  there  can  be  no  hving 
thing  which  does  not  possess  natural  instincts  of 
appetition  and  avoidance  ;  but  the  objects  of  appe- 
tition  are  the  things  which  are  in  accordance  \\ith 
nature,  and  the  objects  of  avoidance  are  the  con- 
trary  ;  and  every  hving  thing  seeks  certain  things  and 
flees  from  certain  things,  but  that  which  it  flees 
from  is  contrary  to  nature,  and  that  which  is  con- 
trary  to  nature  has  the  power  of  destruction  ;  there- 
fore   every   h\ang   thing  must   of  necessity  perish. 

34  There  are  proofs  too  numerous  to  count  by  which  it  (vi.) 
can  be  irrefra^ablv  estabhshed  that  there  is  nothino;  ?^P*bi«  o' 
possessed  of  sensation  that  does  not  perish  ;  in  fact  sensation, 
the  actual  objects  of  sensation,  such  as  cold  and  heat, 
pleasure   and  pain,  and  the  rest,  when   felt   in    an 
intense  degree  cause  destruction  ;  nor  is  any  hving 

thing  devoid  of  sensation  ;   therefore  no  hving  thing 
is  everlasting.     XIV.  For  every  hving  thing  must  (vii.)  com- 
either  be  of  a  simple  substance,  and  composed  of  ['°^*^®  ^""^ 
either  earth  or  fire  or  breath  or  moisture — and  such  dissoiubie. 
an  animal  is  inconceivable — ,  or  else  of  a  substance 
compounded  of  several  elements,  each  having  its  own 

M  317 


CICERO 

naturis,  quarum  suum  quaeque  locum  habeat  quo 
naturae  \i  feratur,  alia  infimum  alia  summum  alia 
medium  :  haec  ad  quoddam  tempus  cohaerere 
possunt,  semper  autem  nullo  modo  possunt,  necesse 
est  enim  in  suum  quaeque  locum  natura  rapiatur  ; 
nullum  igitur  animal  est  sempiternum. 

35  "  Sed  omnia  vestri,  Balbe,  solent  ad  igneam  vim 
referre,  Heraclitum  ut  opinor  sequentes,  quem  ipsum 
non  omnes  interpretantur  uno  modo  ;  qui  quoniam 
quid  diceret  intellegi  noluit,  omittamus  ;  vos  autem 
ita  dicitis,  omnem  \dm  esse  igneam,  itaque  et  ani- 
mantis  cum  calor  defecerit  tum  interire  et  in  omni 
natura  rerum  id  vivere  id  vigere  quod  caleat.  Ego 
autem  non  intellego  quo  modo  calore  extincto  cor- 
pora  intereant,non  intereant  umore  aut  spiritu  amisso, 

36  praesertim  cum  intereant  etiam  nimio  calore  ;  quam 
ob  rem  id  quidem  commune  est  de  calido  ;  verum 
tamen  videamus  exitum.  Ita  voltis  opinor,  nihil  esse 
animal  intrinsecus  in  natura  atque  mundo  praeter 
ignem :  qui  magis  quam  praeter  animam,  unde  ani- 
mantium  quoque  constet  animus,  ex  quo  animal  dici- 
tur  ?  Quo  modo  autem  hoc  quasi  concedatur  sumitis, 
nihil  esse  animum  nisi  ignem  ?  probabiHus  enim  vide- 
tur  tale  quiddam  esse  animum  ut  sit  ex  igni  atque 
anima  temperatum.  Quodsi  ignis  ex  sese  ipse  ani- 
mal  est  nulla  se  aha  admiscente  natura,  quoniam  is, 
cum  inest  in  corporibus  nostris,  efficit  ut  sentiamus, 
non  potest  ipse  esse  sine  sensu.     Rursus  eadem  dici 

"  A  fragment  of  Heraclitus  runs  '  The  same  world  of  all 
things  none  of  the  gods  nor  any  man  did  make,  but  it 
always  was  and  is  and  will  be  ever-hving  fire,  being  kindled 
by  measures  and  extinguished  by  measures.' 

'  He  was  called  'the  dark';  clarus  ob  obscuram  linguam 
Lucretius  i.  639. 
318 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xiv. 

place  towards  >\hich  it  travels  by  natural  impulsion, 
one  to  the  bottom,  another  to  the  top  and  another  to 
the  middle  ;  such  elements  can  cohere  for  a  certain 
time,  but  cannot  possibly  do  so  for  ever,  for  eacli 
must  of  necessity  be  borne  away  by  nature  to  its 
own  place  ;  therefore  no  Hving  thing  is  everlasting. 

35  "  But  your  school,  Balbus,  is  wont  to  trace  all  things  Firw  is  not 
back  to  an  elemental  force  of  a  fiery  nature,  herein  as  ess^ential 

I  beheve  foUowing  Herachtus,'*  although  all  do  not  ^  ^i^^ '» 
interpret  the  master  in  one  way  ;  however,  as  he 
did  not  wish  his  meaning  to  be  understood,^  let  us 
lcave  him  out  ;  but  your  doctrine  is  that  all  force  is 
of  the  nature  of  fire,  and  that  because  of  this  animal 
creatures  perish  when  their  heat  fails  and  also  in 
every  realm  of  nature  a  thing  is  aUve  and  vigorous  if 
it  is  wami.  But  I  for  my  part  do  not  understand  how 
organisms  should  perish  if  their  heat  is  quenched 
without  perishing  if  deprived  of  moisture  orair,especi- 

36  ally  as  they  also  perish  from  excessive  heat ;  there- 
fore  what  you  say  about  heat  applies  also  to  the  other 
elements.  However,  let  us  see  what  follows.  Your 
view,  I  beheve,  is  that  there  is  no  animate  being 
contained  within  the  whole  universe  of  nature  except 
fire.  Why  fire  any  more  than  air  (anima),  of  which 
also  the  soul  (animus)  of  animate  beings  consists, 
from  which  the  term  '  animate  '  is  derived  ?  On 
M-hat  ground  moreover  do  you  take  it  for  granted  that 
there  is  no  soul  except  fire  ?  It  seems  more  reasonable 
to  hold  that  soul  is  of  a  composite  nature,  and  consists 

of  fire  and  air  combined.    However,  if  fire  is  animate  b"tif  itl» 
in  and  by  itself,  without  the  admixture  of  any  other  of  feeiing, 
element,  it  is  the  presence  of  fire  in  our  own  bodies  ^^VsJ^^g.^ 
that  causes  us  to  possess  sensation,  and  therefore  fire  tibie, 
itself  cannot  be  devoid  of  sensation.     Here  we  can 

319 


CICERO 

possunt :  quidquid  est  enim  quod  sensum  habeat,  id 
necesse  est  sentiat  et  voluptatem  et  dolorem,  ad  quem 
autem  dolor  veniat  ad  eundem  etiam  interitum  venire ; 
ita  fit  ut  ne  ignem  quidem  efRcere  possitis  aeternum. 

37  Quid  enim  ?  non  eisdem  vobis  placet  omnem  ignem 
pastus  indigere,  nec  permanere  ullo  modo  posse 
nisi  alatur  ?  ali  autem  solem,  lunam,  reliqua  astra 
aquis,  alia  dulcibus,  alia  marinis  ?  Eamque  causam 
Cleanthes  adfert 

cur  se  sol  referat  nec  longius  progrediatur 
solstitiali  orbi, 

itemque  brumaU,  ne  longius  discedat  a  cibo.  Hoc 
totum  quale  sit  mox ;  nunc  autem  concludatur  illud : 
quod  interire  possit  id  aeternum  non  esse  natura; 
ignem  autem  interiturum  esse  nisi  alatur;  non  esse 
igitur  natura  ignem  sempiternum. 

38  XV.  "  Qualem  autem  deum  intellegere  nos  pos- 
sumus  nuUa  virtute  praeditum  ?  Quid  enim  ?  pru- 
dentiamne  deo  tribuemus,  quae  constat  ex  scientia 
rerum  bonarum  et  malarum  et  nec  bonarum  nec 
malarum  ?  cui  maU  nihil  est  nec  esse  potest,  quid 
huic  opus  est  dilectu  bonorum  et  malorum  ?  Quid 
autem  ratione,  quid  intellegentia  ?  quibus  utimur 
ad  eam  rem  ut  apertis  obscura  adsequamur  ;  at 
obscurum  deo  nihil  potest  esse.  Nam  iustitia,  quae 
suum  cuique  distribuit,  quid  pertinet  ad  deos  ? 
hominum  enim  societas  et  communitas,  ut  vos 
dicitis,    iustitiam   procreavit.      Temperantia    autem 


«  See  §  32. 

^  Mayor  detected  this  verse  quotation  from  an  unknown 
source.    Cf.  ii.  25. 
320 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xiv.— xv. 

repeat  the  argument  employed  before  **  :  whatever 
has  sensation  must  necessarily  feel  both  pleasure  and 
pain,  but  he  who  is  hable  to  pain  must  also  be  hable 
to  destruction  ;    from  this  it   follows   that    you  are 

37  unable  to  prove  fire  also  to  be  everlasting.    Moreover,  especiaiiy 
do  you  not  also  hold  that  all  fire  requires  fuel,  and  Je.^uireg 
cannot  possibly  endure  unless  it  is  fed  ?  and  that  the  ^^^^- 
sun,  moon  and  other  heavenly  bodies  draw  susten- 

ance  in  some  cases  from  bodies  of  fresh  water  and  in 
other  cases  from  the  sea  ?  This  is  the  reason  given 
by  Cleanthes  to  explain  vvhy 

The  sun  turns  back,  nor  farther  doth  proceed 
Upon  his  summer  curve,* 

and  upon  his  winter  one  hkewise  ;  it  is  that  he  may 
not  travel  too  far  away  from  his  food.  We  will  defer 
consideration  of  the  whole  of  tliis  subject  ;  for  the 
present  let  us  end  with  the  following  syllogism  : 
That  which  can  perish  cannot  be  an  eternal  sub- 
stance  ;  but  fire  will  perish  if  it  is  not  fed  ;  therefore 
fire  is  not  an  eternal  substance. 

38  XV.  "  But  what  can  we  make  of  a  god  not  endowed  The  recog- 
with  any  virtue  ?    Well,  are  we  to  assign  to  god  pru-  vJrtnes  in- 
dence,  which  consists  in  the  knowledge  of  things  good,  compatibie 
things  evil,  and  things  neither  good  nor  evil  ?    to  a  divine 
being  who  experiences  and  can  experience  nothing  JJl'^!^ 
evil,  what   need  is   there   of  the   power  to   choose  without 
between  things  good  and  evil  ?  Or  of  reason,  or  of  in-  ciSvabia 
telhgence  ?  these  faculties  we  employ  for  the  purpose 

of  proceeding  from  the  known  to  the  obscure  ;  but 
nothing  can  be  obscure  to  god.  Then  justice,  which 
assigns  to  each  his  own — what  has  this  to  do  with  the 
gods  ?  justice,  as  you  tell  us,  is  the  offspring  of  human 
society   and   of  the   commonwealth   of  man.      And 

32] 


CICERO 

constat  ex  praetermittendis  voluptatibiis  corporis,  cui 
si  locus  in  caelo  est,  est  etiam  voluptatibus.  Nam 
fortis  deus  intellegi  qui  potest  ?  in  dolore  ?  an  in 
labore  ?   an  in  periculo  ?  quorum  deum  nihil  attingit. 

39  Nec  ratione  igitur  utentem  nec  virtute  ulla  prae- 
ditum  deum  intellegere  qui  possumus  ? 

"  Nec  vero  volgi  atque  imperitorum  inscitiam 
despicere  possum,  cum  ea  considero  quae  dicuntur 
a  Stoicis.  Sunt  enim  illa  imperitorum :  piscem 
Syri  venerantur,  omne  fere  genus  bestiarum  Aegyptii 
consecraverunt ;  iam  vero  in  Graecia  multos  habent 
ex  hominibus  deos,  Alabandum  Alabandis,  Tenedii 
Tennen,  Leucotheam  quae  fuit  Ino  et  eius  Palae- 
monem  filium  cuncta  Graecia,  Herculem  Aescu- 
lapium  Tyndaridas ;  Romulum  nostri  ahosque 
compluris,  quos  quasi  novos  et  adscripticios  cives  in 

40  caelum  receptos  putant.  XVI.  Haec  igitur  indocti ; 
quid  vos  philosophi  ?  qui  mehora  ?  Omitto  illa,  sunt 
enim  praeclara :  sit  sane  deus  ipse  mundus — hoc 
credo  illud  esse 

sublime  candens,  quem  invocant  omnes  lovem. 
Quare  igitur  pluris  adiungimus  deos  ?   Quanta  autem 
est  eorum  multitudo  !    Mihi  quidem  sane  multi  viden- 
tur  ;    singulas  enim  stellas  numeras  deos  eosque  aut 
beluarum  nomine  appellas,  ut   Capram  ut   Nepam 

•  The  conclusion  implied  is  that  no  god  exists. 

^  Atargatis  or  Derceto  (Dagon),  a  fish  wilh  a  woman's 
face,  worshipped  at  Ascalon. 
322 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xv.— xvi. 

teniperance  consists  in  forgoing  bodilv  pleasures  ; 
so  if  there  is  room  for  temperance  in  heaven,  there  is 
also  room  for  pleasure.  As  for  courage,  how  can  i^od 
be  conceived  as  brave  ?  in  enduring  pain  ?  or  toil  ?  or 

39  dano^er  ?  to  none  of  these  is  god  hable.  God  then  is 
neither  rational  nor  possessed  of  any  of  the  virtues  : 
but  such  a  god  is  inconceivable  ** ! 

"  In  fact,  when  I  reflect  upon  the  utterances  of  the  Popuiar 
Stoic^,  I  cannot  despise  the  stupidity  of  the  vulgar  S^morl^ 
and  the  ignorant.    With  the  ignorant  you  get  super-  '^"^^^^^^^ 
stitions  hke  the  Syrians'  worship  of  a  fish,^  and  the  deification 
Egyptians'   deification   of  almost    every   species   ofcoTOand°' 
animal  ;  nay,  even  in  Greece  they  worship  a  number  wine,  and 
of  deified  human  beings,  Alabandus  at  Alabanda,  °often*liI^re 
Tennes  at  Tenedos,  Leucothea,  formerly  Ino,  and  her  are  severai 
son  Palaemon  throughout  the  whole  of  Greece,  as  name). 
also  Hercules,  Aescuiapius,  the  sons  of  Tyndareus  ; 
and  with  our  own  people  Romulus  and  many  others, 
who  are  beheved  to  have  been  admitted  to  celestial 
citizenship  in  recent  times,  by  a  sort  of  extension  of 

40  the  franchise  !  XVI.  Well,  those  are  the  supersti- 
tions  of  the  unlearned  ;  but  what  of  you  philosophers? 
how  are  your  dogmas  any  better  ?  I  pass  over  the 
rest  of  them,  for  they  are  remarkable  indeed  !  but 
take  it  as  true  that  the  world  is  itself  god — for  this,  I 
suppose,  is  the  meaning  of  the  line 

Yon  dazzling  vault  of  heaven,  which  all  mankind 
As  Jove  invoke. 

Why  then  are  we  to  add  a  number  of  other  gods  as 
well  ?  And  what  a  crowd  of  them  there  is  !  At  least 
there  seems  to  me  to  be  a  great  lot  of  them  ;  for  you 
reckon  each  of  the  stars  a  god,  and  either  call  them 
by  the  names  of  animals  such  as  She-goat,  Scorpion, 

323 


CICERO 

ut  Taurum  ut  Leonem,  aut  rerum  inanimarum,  ut 

41  Argo  ut  Aram  ut  Coronam.  Sed  ut  haec  concedan- 
tur,  reliqua  qui  tandem  non  modo  concedi  sed  om- 
nino  intellegi  possunt  ?  Cum  fruges  Cererem,  vinum 
Liberum  dicimus,  genere  nos  quidem  sermonis  utimur 
usitato,  sed  ecquem  tam  amentem  esse  putas  qui 
illud  quo  vescatur  deum  credat  esse  ?  Nam  quos  ab 
hominibus  pervenisse  dicis  ad  deos,  tu  reddes  ratio- 
nem  quem  ad  modum  id  fieri  potuerit  aut  cur.fien 
desierit,  et  ego  discam  hbenter  ;  quo  modo  nunc  qui- 
dem  est,  non  video  quo  pacto  ille  cui  *  in  monte 
Oetaeo  illatae  lampades'  fuerint,  ut  ait  Accius, 
'  in  domum  aeternam  patris  '  ex  illo  ardore  per- 
venerit ;  quem  tamen  Homerus  apud  inferos  con- 
veniri  facit  ab  Uhxe,  sicut  ceteros  qui  excesserant 
vita. 

42  "  Quamquam  quem  potissimum  Herculem  colamus 
scire  sane  velim  ;  pluris  enim  tradunt  nobis  ii  qui 
interiores  scrutantur  et  reconditas  litteras,  antiquissi- 
mum  love  natum  sed  item  love  antiquissimo — nam 
loves  quoque  pluris  in  priscis  Graecorum  htteris 
invenimus  :  ex  eo  igitur  et  Lysithoe  est  is  Hercules 
quem  concertavisse  cum  Apohine  de  tripode  accf  pi- 
mus.  Alter  traditur  Nilo  natus  Aegyptius,  quem 
aiunt  Phrygias  htteras  conscripsisse.  Tertius  est 
ex   Idaeis  Digitis,  cui  inferias  adferunt.^     Quartus 

^  adferunt    dett.  :     adferunt     qui   A,    B^    adferunt    Coi 
Gronovius. 


"  Od.  xi.  600  ff.  Our  text  of  Homer  adds  in  11.  602-604. 
that  what  Odysseus  met  was  a  wraith  (eiowXoj'),  but  that 
Heracles  himself  was  feasting  with  the  gods  and  wedded  to 
Hebe.  These  lines,  however,  were  obeHzed  by  Aristarchus 
as  non-Homeric  and  inconsistent  with  the  lllad^  which 
324 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xvi. 

Bull,  Lion,  or  of  inanimate  things  such  as  the  Argo, 

41  the  Altar,  the  Crown.  But  allowing  these,  how  pray 
can  one  possibly,  I  do  not  say  allow,  but  make  head 
or  tail  of  the  remainder  ?  When  we  speak  of  corn  as 
Ceres  and  wine  as  Liber,  we  employ  a  famihar  figure 
of  speech,  but  do  you  suppose  that  anybody  can  be 
80  insane  as  to  beUeve  that  the  food  he  eats  is  a  god  ? 
As  for  the  cases  you  allege  of  men  who  have  risen  to 
the  status  of  divinity,  you  shall  explain,  and  I  shall  be 
glad  to  learn,  how  this  apotheosis  was  possible,  or 
why  it  has  ceased  to  take  place  now.  As  at  present 
informed,  I  do  not  see  how  the  hero  to  whose  body 

On  Oeta's  mount  the  torches  were  applied, 
as  Accius  has  it,  can  have  passed  froni  that  burning 
pyre  to 

The  everlasting  mansions  of  his  Sire — , 

in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Homer  °  represents  Ulysses  as 
meeting  him.  among  the  rest  of  those  who  had  de- 
parted  this  hfe,  in  the  world  below  ! 

42  "  Nevertheless  I  should  Uke  to  know  what  par- 
ticular  Hercules  it  is  that  we  worship  ;  for  we  are 
told  of  several  by  the  students  of  esoteric  and  re- 
condite  writings,  the  most  ancient  being  the  son  of 
Jupiter,  that  is  of  the  most  ancient  Jupiter  likewise, 
for  we  find  several  Jupiters  also  in  the  early  MTitings 
of  the  Greeks.  That  Jupiter  then  and  Lysithoe  were 
the  parents  of  the  Hercules  who  is  recorded  to  have 
had  a  tussle  \nth  ApoUo  about  a  tripod  !  We  hear 
of  another  in  Egypt,  a  son  of  the  Nile,  who  is  said  to 
have  compiled  the  sacred  books  of  Phrygia.  A  third 
comes  from  the  Digiti  of  Mount  Ida,  who  offer  sacri- 

speaks  of  Heracles  as  killed  by  the  wrath  of  Hera,  and  of 
Hebe  as  a  virgin. 

3^25 


CICERO 

Io\is  est  <et>^  Asteriae  Latonae  sororis,  qui  Tyri 
maxime  colitur,  cuius  Karthaginem  filiam  ferunt. 
Quintus  in  India  qui  Belus  dicitur.  Sextus  hic  ex 
Alcmena  quem  luppiter  genuit,  sed  tertius  luppiter 
quoniam  ut  iam  docebo  pluris  loves  etiam  accepimus. 

43  XVII.  "  Quando  enim  me  in  hunc  locum  deduxit 
oratio,  docebo  meHora  me  didicisse  de  colendis  dis 
inmortahbus  iure  pontificio  et  more  maiorum  cape- 
duncuHs  iis  quas  Numa  nobis  rehquit,  de  quibus  in 
illa  aureola  oratiuncula  dicit  Laehus,  quam  rationibus 
Stoicorum.  Si  enim  vos  sequar,  dic  quid  ei  respon- 
deam  qui  me  sic  roget  :  '  Si  di  sunt,^  suntne  etiam 
Nymphae  deae  ?  si  Nymphae,  Panisci  etiam  et  Satjnri ; 
hi  autem  non  sunt ;  ne  Nymphae  [deae]'  quidem 
igitur.  At  earum  templa  sunt  pubHce  vota  et 
dedicata ;  ne  ceteri  quidem  ergo  di,  quorum  templa 
sunt  dedicata  ?  Age  porro  :  lovem  et  Neptunum 
deos*  numeras  ;  ergc  etiam  Orcus  frater  eorum  deus  ; 
et  ilH  qui  fluere  apud  inferos  dicuntur,  Acheron 
Cocytus  Pyriphlegethon,  tum  Charon  tum  Cerberus 

44  di  putandi.  At  id  quidem  repudiandum ;  ne  Orcus 
quidem  igitur ;  quid  dicitis  ergo  de  fratribus  ?  ' 
Haec  Carneades  aiebat,  non  ut  deos  toUeret  (quid 
enim  philosopho  minus  conveniens  ?)  sed  ut  Stoicos 

*  add.  Heindorf.  *  post  sunt  lacunam  signat  Mayor, 

^  deae  om.  dett.  *  deos  dett. :  deum  A^  B. 

"  The  argument  goes  on  at  §  53»  and  perhaps  §§  43-52 
should  be  transposed  after  §  60  (although  the  first  sentence 
of  §  43  seems  to  belong  neither  here  nor  there). 

*  See  §  6  n. 
S26 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xvi.— xvii. 

fices  at  his  toml).  A  fourtli  is  the  son  of  Jiipitcr  and 
Asteria,  the  sister  of  Latona  ;  he  is  chicfly  wor- 
shipped  at  Tyre,  and  is  said  to  have  been  the  father 
of  the  nymph  Carthago.  Thcre  is  a  fifth  in  India, 
named  Belus.  The  sixth  is  our  friend  the  son  of 
Alcmena,  whose  male  progenitor  was  Jupiter,  that 
is  Jupiter  number  three,  since,  as  I  will  now  explain, 
tradition  tells  us  of  several  Jupiters  also." 

43  XVII.  "  For  as  my  discourse  has  led  me  to  this  Carneades 
topic,  I  will  show  that  I  have  learnt  more  about  the  pJoved^t^' 
proper  way  of  worshipping  the  gods,  according  to  impossibie 
pontifical  law  and  the  customs  of  our  ancestors,  from  a^iinT^ 
the  poor  little   pots    bequeathed   to  us  by  Numa,  p^*^^^®? 
which  Laehus  discusses  m  that   dear   httle  gokien  and  the 
speech  &    of    his,    than   from    the    theories    of    the  thTnTtural, 
Stoics.      For   if  I    adopt    your   doctrines,    tell   me 

what  answer  I  am  to  make  to  one  who  questions 
me  thus  :  *  If  gods  exist,  are  the  nymphs  also 
goddesses  ?  if  the  nymphs  are,  the  Pans  and  Satyrs 
also  are  gods ;  but  they  are  not  gods  ;  therefore 
the  nymphs  also  are  not.  Yet  they  possess 
temples  vowed  and  dedicated  to  them  by  the  nation  ; 
are  the  other  gods  also  therefore  who  have  had 
temples  dedicated  to  them  not  gods  either  ?  Come 
tell  me  further  :  you  reckon  Jupiter  and  Neptune 
gods,  therefore  their  brother  Orcus  is  also  a  god  ;  and 
the  fabled  streams  of  the  lower  world,  Acheron, 
Cocytus  and  Pyriphlegethon,  and  also  Charon  and 

44  also  Cerberus  are  to  be  deemed  gods.  No,  you  say, 
we  must  draw  the  hne  at  that ;  well  then,  Orcus  is 
not  a  god  either ;  what  are  you  to  say  about  his 
brothers  then  ?  '  These  arguments  were  advanced 
by  Carneades,  not  w^th  the  object  of  estabhshing 
atheism  (for  what  could  less  befit  a  philosopher  })  but 

327 


CICERO 

nihil  de  dis  explicare  cominceret  ;  itaque  inseque- 
batur  :  '  Quid  enim  ?  '  aiebat  '  si  hi  fratres  sunt  in 
numero  deorum,  num  de  patre  eorum  Saturno  negari 
potest,  quem  volgo  maxime  colunt  ad  occidentem  ? 
Qui  si  est  deus,  patrem  quoque  eius  Caelum  eise 
deum  confitendum  est.  Quod  si  ita  est,  CaeU 
quoque  parentes  di  habendi  sunt,  Aether  et  Dies, 
eorumque  fratres  et  sorores,  qui  a  genealogis  antiquis 
sic  nominantur,  Amor  Dolus  Metus^  Labor  Invidentia 
Fatum  Senectus  Mors  Tenebrae  Miseria  Querella 
Gratia  Fraus  Pertinacia  Parcae  Hesperides  Somnia, 
quos  omnis  Erebo  et  Nocte  natos  ferunt.'  Aut 
igitur  haec  monstra  probanda  sunt  aut  prima  illa 
45  tollenda.  XVIII.  Quid  ?  Apollinem  Volcanum 
Mercurium  ceteros  deos  esse  dices,  de  Hercule 
Aesculapio  Libero  Castore  Polluce  dubitabis  ? 
At  hi  quidem  coluntur  aeque  atque  iUi,  apud  quos- 
dam  etiam  multo  magis.  Ergo  hi  dei  sunt  habendi 
mortaUbus  nati  matribus  ?  Quid  ?  Aristaeus,  qui  oUvae 
dicitur  inventor,  ApoUinis  fiUus,  Theseus  Neptuni,  re- 
Uqui  quorum  patres  di,  non  erunt  in  deorum  numero  ? 
Quid  quorum  matres  ?  Opinor  etiam  magis  ;  ut  enim 
iure  civiU  qui  est  matre  Ubera  Uber  est,  item  iure 
naturae  qui  dea  matre  est  deus  sit  necesse  est.  Ita- 
que  AchiUem  Astypalaeenses  insulani  sanctissume 
colunt ;   qui  si  deus  est,  et  Orpheus  et  Rhesus  di  sunt, 

*  Metus  dett.  :  Morbus  dett.^  modus  Ay  B, 

328 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xvii.— xviii. 

in  order  to  prove  the  Stoic  thcology  worthless  ;  ae- 
cordingly  he  iised  to  piirsiie  his  inquiry  thus  :  '  Well 
now,'  he  would  say,  *  if  these  brothers  are  included 
among  the  gods,  can  we  deny  the  divinity  of  their 
father  Saturn,  who  is  held  in  the  highest  reverence 
by  the  common  people  in  the  west  ?  And  if  he  is 
a  god,  we  must  also  admit  that  his  father  Caelus  is  a 
god.  And  if  so,  the  parents  of  Caelus,  the  Aether 
and  the  Day,  must  be  held  to  be  gods,  and  their 
brothers  and  sisters,  whom  the  ancient  genealogists 
name  Love,  Guile,  Fear,  Toil,  Envy,  Fate,  Old  Age, 
Death,  Darkness,  Misery,  Lamentation,  Favour, 
Fraud,  Obstinacy,  the  Parcae,  the  Daughters  of 
Hesperus,  the  Dreams  :  all  of  these  are  fabled  to  be 
the  children  of  Erebus  and  Night.'  Either  therefore 
you  must  accept  these  monstrosities  or  you  must  dis- 
45  card  the  first  claimants  also.  XVIII.  Again,  if  you 
call  Apollo,  Vulcan,  Mercury  and  the  rest  gods,  ^\ill 
you  have  doubts  about  Hercules,  Aesculapius,  Liber, 
Castor  and  Pollux  ?  But  these  are  wwshipped  just 
as  much  as  those,  and  indeed  in  some  places  very 
much  more  than  they.  Are  we  then  to  deem  these 
gods,  the  sons  of  mortal  mothers  ?  Well  then,  will 
not  Aristaeus,  the  reputed  discoverer  of  the  olive, 
who  was  the  son  of  Apollo,  Theseus  the  son  of  Nep- 
tune,  and  all  the  other  sons  of  gods,  also  be  reckoned 
as  gods  ?  What  about  the  sons  of  goddesses  ?  I 
think  they  have  an  even  better  claim  ;  for  just  as  by 
the  civil  law  one  whose  mother  is  a  freewoman  is  a 
freeman,  so  by  the  law  of  nature  one  whose  mother  is 
a  goddess  must  be  a  god.  And  in  the  island  of  Asty- 
palaea  Achilles  is  most  devoutly  worshipped  by  the 
inhabitants  on  these  grounds  ;  but  if  Achilles  is  a 
god,  so  are  Orpheus  and  Rhesus,  whose  mother  was  a 

329 


CICERO 

Musa  matre  nati,  nisi  forte  maritumae  nuptiae  terre- 
nis  anteponuntur.     Si  hi  di  non  sunt,  quia  nusquam 

46  coluntur,  quo  modo  illi  sunt  ?  Vide  igitur  ne  virtuti- 
bus  hominum  isti  honores  habeantur,  non  immortali- 
tatibus  ;  quod  tu  quoque,  Balbe,  visus  es  dicere.  Quo 
modo  autem  potes,  si  Latonam  deam  putas,  Hecatam 
non  putare,  quae  matre  Asteria  est,  sorore  Latonae  ? 
An  haec  quoque  dea  est  ?  vidimus  enim  eius  aras 
delubraque  in  Graecia.  Sin  haec  dea  est,  cur  non 
Eumenides  ?  Quae  si  deae  sunt,  quarum  et  Athenis 
fanum  est  et  apud  nos,  ut  ego  interpretor,  lucus  Furi- 
nae,  Furiae  deae  sunt,  speculatrices  credo  et  vindices 

47  facinorum  et  sceleris.  Quodsi  tales  dei  sunt  ut  rebus 
humanis  intersint,  Natio  quoque  dea  putanda  est,  cui 
cum  fana  circumimus  in  agro  Ardeati  rem  divinam 
facere  solemus;  quaequia  partusmatronarumtueatur^ 
a  nascentibus  Natio  nominata  est.  Ea  si  dea  est,  di 
omnes  ilh  qui  commemorabantur  a  te,  Honos  Fides 
Mens  Concordia,  ergo  etiam  Spes  Moneta  omniaque 
quae  cogitatione  nobismet  ipsi^  possumus  fingere. 
Quod  si  veri  simile  non  est,  ne  illud  quidem  est  haec 
unde  fluxerunt.  XIX.  Quid  autem  dicis,  si  di  sunt 
ilU  quos  cohmus  et  accepimus,  cm'  non  eodem  in 
genere  Serapim  Isimque  numeremus  ?  quod  si 
facimus,  cur  barbarorum  deos  repudiemus  ?     Boves 

^  tuetur  B  corr.  ^  ipsi  Davies  :  ipsis. 

"  There  was  a  special  worship  of  Venus  at  Ardea,  an  old 
Latin  city  once  important  but  long  before   Cicero's  time 
insignificant. 
330 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xviii.— xix. 

Muse,  unless  perhaps  a  marriage  at  the  bottom  of  the 
sea  counts  higher  than  a  marriage  on  dry  land  !  If 
these  are  not  gods,  because  they  are  nowhere  wor- 

46  shipped,  how  can  the  others  be  gods  ?  Is  not  the 
explanation  this,  that  divine  honours  are  paid  to 
men's  virtues,  not  to  their  immortahty  ?  as  you  too, 
Balbus,  appeared  to  indicate.  Then,  if  you  think 
Latona  a  goddess,  how  can  you  not  think  that  Hecate 
is  one,  who  is  the  daughter  of  Latona's  sister  Asteria  ? 
Is  Hecate  a  goddess  too  ?  we  have  seen  altars  and 
shrines  belonging  to  her  in  Greece.  But  if  Hecate  is 
a  goddess,  why  are  not  the  Eumenides  ?  and  if  they 
are  goddesses, — and  they  have  a  temple  at  Athens, 
and  the  Grove  of  Furina  at  Rome,  if  I  interpret  that 
name  aright,  also  belongs  to  them, — then  the  Furies 
are  goddesses,  presumably  in  their  capacity  of  de- 

47  tectors  and  avengers  of  crime  and  wickedness.  And 
if  it  is  the  nature  of  the  gods  to  intervene  in  man's 
affairs,  the  Birth-Spirit  also  must  be  deemed  divine, 
to  whom  it  is  our  custom  to  offer  sacrifice  when  we 
make  the  round  of  the  shrines  in  the  Territory  of 
Ardea  ** :  she  is  named  Natio  from  the  word  for  being 
born  (nasci),  because  she  is  beUeved  to  watch  over 
married  women  in  travail.  If  she  is  divine,  so  are  all 
those  abstractions  that  you  mentioned,  Honour, 
Faith,  Intellect,  Concord,  and  therefore  also  Faith, 
the  Spirit  of  Money  and  all  the  possible  creations  of 
our  own  imagination.  If  this  supposition  is  unhkely, 
so  also  is  the  former  one,  from  which  all  these  in- 
stances  flow.  XIX.  Then,  if  the  traditional  gods 
whom  we  worship  are  really  divlne,  what  reason  can 
you  give  why  we  should  not  include  Isis  and  Osiris  in 
the  same  category  ?  And  if  we  do  so,  why  should  we 
repudiate  the  gods   of  the  barbarians  ?     We  shall 

331 


CICERO 

igitur  et  equos,  ibis  accipitres  aspidas  crocodilos 
pisces  canes  lupos  faelis  multas  praeterea  beluas  in 
deorum   numerum   reponemus.     Quae  si  reicimus,* 

48  illa  quoque  unde  haec  nata  sunt  reiciemus.  Quid 
deinde  ?  Ino  dea  ducetur  et  K^vKodka  a  Graecis  a 
nobis  Matuta  dicetur  cum  sit  Cadmi  filia,  Circe 
autem  et  Pasiphae  et  Aeeta^  e  Perseide  Oceani 
fiha  nati  patre  Sole  in  deorum  numero  non  habe- 
buntur  ?  quamquam  Circen  quoque  coloni  nostri 
Circeienses  rehgiose  colunt.  Ergo  hanc  deam 
duces':  quid  Medeae  respondebis,  quae  duobus* 
avis  Sole  et  Oceano,  Aeeta  patre  matre  Idyia  pro- 
creata  est  ?  quid  huius  Absyrto  fratri  (qui  est  apud 
Pacuvium  Aegialeus,  sed  illud  nomen  veterum  htteris 
usitatius)  ?    qui  si  di    non  sunt,  vereor   quid   agat 

49  Ino  ;  haec  enim  omnia  ex  eodem  fonte  fluxerunt.  An 
Amphiaraus  erit  deus  et  Trophonius  ?  Nostri  quidem 
pubhcani,  cum  essent  agri  in  Boeotia  deorum  inmor- 
tahum  excepti  lege  censoria,  negabant  inmortahs  esse 
uUos  qui  ahquando  homines  fuissent.  Sed  si  sunt 
hi  di,  est  certe  Erechtheus,  cuius  Athenis  et  delubrum 
vidimus  et  sacerdotem.  Quem  si  deum  facimus,  quid 
aut  de  Codro  dubitare  possumus  aut  de  ceteris  qui 
pugnantes  pro  patriae  hbertate  ceciderunt  ?  quod  si 
probabile  non  est,  ne  illa  quidem   superiora  unde 

eO  haec  manant  probanda  sunt.      Atque  in  plerisque 

*  reicimus  Mayor  :  reiciamus  mss.^  reiciemus  ?  ed, 
^  Aeetae  Baiter  :   eae  e  A^  eae  B. 
•  duces  Baiter :  ducis,  dicis,  dices  MSS. 
*  duobus  <dis>  Alan. 

•  As  weh  as  Matuta. 
332 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xix. 

therefore  have  to  admit  to  the  list  of  gods  oxen  and 
horses,  ibises,  hawks,  asps,  crocodiles,  fishes,  dogs, 
wolves,  cats  and  many  beasts  besides.  Or  if  we  reject 
these,  we  shall  also  reject  those  others  from  whom 

48  their  claim  springs.  What  next  ?  If  Ino  is  to  be 
deemed  divine,  under  the  title  of  Leucothea  in  Greece 
and  Matuta  at  Rome,  because  she  is  the  daughter 
of  Cadmus,  are  Circe  and  Pasiphae  and  Aeetes,  the 
children  of  Perseis  the  daughter  of  Oceanus  by  the 
Sun,  to  be  not  counted  in  the  hst  of  gods  ?  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  Circe  too°  is  devoutly  worshipped  at  the 
Roman  colony  of  Circei.  If  you  therefore  deem  her 
divine,  what  answer  will  you  give  to  Medea,  who,  as 
her  father  was  Aeetes  and  her  mother  Idyia,  had  as 
her  two  grandfathers  the  Sun  and  Oceanus  ?  or 
to  her  brother  Absyrtus  (who  appears  in  Pacuvius 
as  Aegialeus,  though  the  former  name  is  commoner 
in  ancient  hterature)  ?  if  these  are  not  divine,  I 
have  my  fears  as  to  what  will  become  of  Ino,  for  tlie 
claims  of  all  of  them  derive  from  the  same  source. 

49  Or  if  we  allow  Ino,  are  we  going  to  make  Amphiaraus 
and  Trophonius  divine  ?  The  Roman  tax-farmers, 
fmding  that  lands  in  Boeotia  belonging  to  the  im- 
mortal  gods  were  exempted  by  the  censor's  regula- 
tions,  used  to  maintain  that  nobody  was  immortal 
who  had  once  upon  a  time  been  a  human  being.  But 
if  these  are  divine,  so  undoubtedly  is  Erechtheus, 
whose  shrine  and  whose  priest  also  we  saw  when  at 
Athens.  And  if  we  make  him  out  to  be  divine,  what 
doubts  can  we  feel  about  Codrus  or  any  other  persons 
who  fell  fighting  for  their  country's  freedom  ?  if  we 
stick  at  this,  we  must  reject  the  earher  cases  too, 

50  from  which  these  follow.  Also  it  is  easy  to  see  that 
in  most  states  the  memory  of  brave  men  has  been 

333 


CICERO 

civitatibus  intellegi  potest  augendae  virtutis  gratia, 
quo^  libentius  rei  publicae  causa  periculum  adiret 
optimus  quisque,  virorum  fortium  memoriam  honore 
deorum  immortalium  consecratam.  Ob  eam  enim 
ipsam  causam  Erechtheus  Athenis  fihaeque  eius  in 
numero  deorum  sunt  ;  item.que  Leonaticum  est 
delubrum  Athenis,  quod  AeioKopioi  nominatur.  Ala- 
bandenses  quidem  sanctius  Alabandum  colunt,  a  quo 
est  urbs  illa  condita,  quam  quemquam  nobihum 
deorum  ;  apud  quos  non  inurbane  Stratonicus  ut 
multa,  cum  quidam  ei  molestus  Alabandum  deum 
esse  confirmaret,  Herculem  negaret,  '  Ergo  '  inquit 
61  '  mihi  Alabandus  tibi  Hercules  sit  iratus.'  XX. 
Illa  autem,  Balbe,  quae  tu  a  caelo  astrisque  ducebas, 
quam  longe  serpant  non  vides  ?  Solem  deum  esse 
lunamque,  quorum  alterum  ApoUinem  Graeci 
alteram  Dianam  putant.  Quodsi  Luna  dea  est, 
ergo  etiam  Lucifer  ceteraeque  errantes  numerum 
deorum  obtinebunt ;  igitur  etiam  inerrantes.  Cur 
autem  Arqui  species  non  in  deorum  numero  re- 
ponatur  ?  est  enim  pulcher,  et  ob  eam  causam  quia 
speciem  habeat^  admirabilem  Thaumante  dicitur 
<Iris>^  esse  nata.  Cuius  si  di\ina  natura  est,  quid 
facies  nubibus  ?  Arcus  enim  ipse  e  nubibus  efficitur 
quodam  modo  coloratis  ;  quarum  una  etiam  Cen- 
tauros  peperisse  dicitur.  Quodsi  nubes  rettuleris  in 
deos,  referendae  certe  erunt  tempestates,  quae  popuh 
Romani  ritibus  consecratae  sunt.  Ergo  imbres 
nimbi  procellae  turbines  dei   putandi.     Nostri  qui- 

^  <aut>  quo  Lactantius. 
2  habet  dett.  *  add.  Antonius  Augustinus. 

"  Editors  suspect  this  unknown  name  :   Cicero  can  hardly 
have  coined  it  to  translate  the  Greek. 
334 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xix.— xx. 

sanctified  with  divine  honours  for  the  purpose  of 
promoting  valour,  to  make  the  bcst  men  more  wilHng 
to  encounter  danger  for  their  country's  sake.  This 
is  the  reason  ^vhy  Erechtheus  and  his  daughters  have 
been  deified  at  Athens,  and  hkewise  there  is  the 
Leonatic  "  shrine  at  Athens,  which  is  named  Leo- 
corion.  The  people  of  Alabanda  indeed  worship 
Alabandus,  the  founder  of  that  city,  more  devoutly 
than  any  of  the  famous  deities.  And  it  was  there  that 
Stratonicus  uttered  one  of  his  many  witty  sayings  ; 
some  person  obnoxious  to  him  swore  that  Alabandus 
was  divine  and  Hercules  was  not  :  '  Well  and  good,' 
said  Stratonicus,  '  let  the  wrath  of  Alabandus  fall  on 
51  me  and  that  of  Hercules  on  you.'  XX.  As  for  your 
deriving  rehgion  from  the  sky  and  stars,  do  you  not 
see  what  a  long  way  this  takes  you  ?  You  say  that 
the  sun  and  moon  are  deities,  and  the  Greeks  identify 
the  former  with  Apollo  and  the  latter  with  Diana. 
But  if  the  Moon  is  a  goddess,  then  Lucifer  also 
and  the  rest  of  the  planets  will  have  to  be  counted 
gods  ;  and  if  so,  then  the  fixed  stars  as  well.  But 
why  should  not  the  glorious  Rainbow  be  included 
among  the  gods  ?  it  is  beautiful  enough,  and  its  mar- 
vellous  lovehness  has  given  rise  to  the  legend  that 
Iris  is  the  daughter  of  Thaumas.^  And  if  the  rainbow 
is  a  divinity,  what  will  you  do  about  the  clouds  ?  The 
rainbow  itself  is  caused  by  some  coloration  of  the 
clouds  ;  and  also  a  cloud  is  fabled  to  have  given  birth 
to  the  Centaurs.  But  if  you  enroll  the  clouds  among 
the  gods,  you  will  undoubtedly  have  to  enroll  the 
seasons,  which  have  been  deified  in  the  national 
ritual  of  Rome.  If  so,  then  rain  and  tempest,  storm 
and  whirlwind  must  be  deemed  divine.  At  any  rate 
*  From  davfjia^  wonder. 

335 


CICERO 

dem    duces    mare    ingredientes    inmolare    hostiam 

62  fluctibus  consuerunt.  lam  si  est  Ceres  a  gerendo 
(ita  enim  dicebas),  terra  ipsa  dea  est  (et  ita  habetur  ; 
quae  est  enim  alia  Tellus  ?)  Sin  terra,  mare  etiam, 
quem  Neptunum  esse  dicebas  ;  ergo  et  flumina  et 
fontes.  Itaque  et  Fontis  delubrum  Maso  ex  Corsica 
dedicavit,  et  in  augurum  precatione  Tiberinum 
Spinonem  Almonem  Nodinum  alia  propinquorum 
fluminum  nomina  videmus.  Ergo  hoc  aut  in  inmen- 
sum  serpet,  aut  nihil  horum  recipiemus  ;  nec  illa 
infinita  ratio  superstitionis  probabitur  ;  nihil  ergo 
horum  probandum  est. 

63  XXI.  "  Dicamus  igitur,  Balbe,  oportet  contra  illos 
etiam  qui  hos  deos  ex  hominum  genere  in  caelum 
translatos  non  re  sed  opinione  esse  dicunt,  quos 
auguste  omnes  sancteque  veneramur.  .  .  .  Principio 
loves  tres  numerant  ii  qui  theologi  nominantur, 
ex  quibus  primum  et  secundum  natos  in  Arcadia, 

^alte^im  patre  Aethere,  ex  quo  etiam  Proserpinam 
natam  ferunt  et  Liberum,  alterum  patre  Caelo, 
qui  genuisse  Minervam  dicitur,  quam  principem  et 
inventricem  belli  ferunt,  tertium  Cretensem  Saturni 
filium,  cuius  in  illa  insula  sepulcrum  ostenditur. 
ALocTKovpoL  etiam  apud  Graios  multis  modis  nomi- 
nantur  :  primi  tres,  qui  appellantur  Anaces^  Athenis, 
ex  rege  love  antiquissimo  et  Proserpina  nati,  Trito- 

*  Anaces  Marsus  :  Anaktes. 

«  Cf.  ii.  67.  "  Cf.  ii.  QQ. 

"  §§  53-60  Mayor  transposes  to  the  end  of  §  42,  thus 
supplying  a  reference  for  the  words  '  these  gods '  in  the 
second  line.  But  the  topic  of  the  first  sentence  is  nowhere 
pursued,  and  perhaps  it  should  be  kept  where  it  stands, 
with  a  mark  indicating  the  loss  of  a  passage  that  it  intro- 
duced,  and  the  rest  of  §§  53-60  transferred  to  §  42. 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xx.— xxi. 

it  has  been  the  custom  of  our  generals  when  embark- 
ing  on  a  sea-voyage  to  sacrifice  a  victim  to  the  waves. 

62  Again,  if  the  name  of  Ceres  is  derived  from  her 
bearing  fruit,  as  you  said,"  the  earth  itself  is  a  goddess 
(and  so  she  is  beheved  to  be,  for  she  is  the  same  as  the 
deity  Tellus).  But  if  the  earth  is  divine,  so  also  is 
the  sea,  which  you  identified  with  Neptune  ^ ;  and 
therefore  the  rivers  and  springs  too.  This  is  borne 
out  by  the  facts  that  Maso  dedicated  a  Temple  of 
Fons  out  of  his  Corsican  spoils,  and  that  the  Augurs' 
litany  includes  as  we  may  see  the  names  of  Tiberinus, 
Spino,  Almo,  Nodinus,  and  other  rivers  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood  of  Rome.  Either  therefore  this  process 
wuU  go  on  indefinitely,  or  we  shall  admit  none  of 
these  ;  and  this  unhmited  claim  of  superstition  will 
not  be  accepted  ;  therefore  none  of  these  is  to  be 
accepted. 

63  XXI.  "  Accordingly^^^Balbus^wealsoought  torefute  Refutation 
the  theory  that  these  gods,  who  are  deified  human  theory  that 
beings,  and  who  are  the  objects  of  our  most  devout  deified 
and  universal  veneration,  exist  not  in  reaUty  but  in  beings  exist 
imagination.  .  .  In  the  first  place,  the  so-called  theo-  Jhou^St. 
logians  enumerate  threeJupiters,  of  whom  the  first  Listof 
and  second  were  born,  they  say,  in  Arcadia,  the  father  ^^^^g  ^^^^ 
of  one  being  Aethfir,  who  is  also  fabled  to  be  the  shared  by 
progenitor  of  Proserpine  and  Liber,  and  of  the  other  fndi^vkiuais. 
Caelus,  and  this  one  is  said  to  have  begotten  Minerva, 

the  fabled  patroness  and  originator  of  warfare  ;  the 
third  is  the  Cretan  Jove,  son  of  Saturp  ;  his  tomb 
is  shown  in  that  island.  The  Dioscuri  also  have  a 
number  of  titles  in  Greece.  The  first  set,  called  Anaces 
at  Athens,  the  sons  of  the  very  ancient  King  Jupiter 
and    Proserpine,    are    Tritopatreus,    Eubuleiis    and 

837 


CICERO 

patreus  Eubuleus  Dionysus,  secundi  love  tertio  nati 
et  Leda  Castor  et  Pollux,  tertii  dicuntur  a  non  nullis 
Alco  et  Melampus  et  Tmolus,  Atrei  filii,  qui  Pelope 
54  natus  fuit.  lam  Musae  primae  quattuor  love  altero 
natae,  Thelxinoe  Aoede  Arche  Melete,  secundae 
love  tertio  et  Mnemosyne  procreatae  novem,  tertiae 
Piero  natae  et  Antiopa,  quas  Pieridas  et  Pierias 
solent  poetae  appellare,  isdem  nominibus  et  eodem 
numero  quo  proximae  superiores.  Cumque  tu  Solem 
quia  solus  esset  appellatum  esse  dicas,  Soles  ipsi 
quam  multi  a  theologis  proferuntur.  Unus  eorum 
love  natus  nepos  Aetheris,  alter  Hyperione,  tertius 
Volcano  NiU  fiHo,  cuius  urbem  Aegyptii  volunt  esse 
eam  quae  HehopoHs  appellatur,  quartus  is  quem 
heroicis  temporibus  Acantho  Rhodi  peperisse  dicitur, 
<pater>*  lalysi  Camiri  Lindi  Rhodi,  quintus  qui 
Colchis    fertur    Aeetam     et    Circam    procreavisse. 

65  XXII.  Volcani  item  complures  :  primus  Caelo  natus, 
ex  quo  et  Minerva  Apolhnem  eum'  cuius  in  tutela 
Athenas  antiqui  historici  esse  voluerunt,  secundus 
Nilo  natus,  Phthas*  ut  Aegyptii  appellant,  quem 
custodem  esse  Aegypti  volunt,  tertius  ex  tertio  love 
et  lunone,  qui  Lemni  fabricae  traditur  praefuisse, 
quartus  Memaho  natus,  qui  tenuit  insulas  propter 

66  Siciham  quae  Volcaniae  nominabantur.  Mercurius 
unus  Caelo  patre  Die  matre  natus,  cuius  obscenius 

^  add.  Davies.  ^  Aponinum  is  Davies, 

^  Phthas  Gyraldus  i  Opas. 

»  See  ii.  68. 
*  i.e.,  volcanic  :  the  Lipari  are  meant. 

S38 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxi.— xxii. 

Dionysus.  The  second  set,  the  sons  of  the  third  Jove 
and  Leda,  are  Castor  and  Pollux.  The  third  are 
named  by  some  people  Alco,  Melampus  and  Tmolus, 

64  and  are  the  sons  of  Atreus  tlie  son  of  Pelops.  Again, 
the  first  set  of  MliSfiS  are  four,  the  daughters  of  the 
second  Jupiter,  Thelxinoe,  Aoede,  Arche  and  Melete  ; 
the  second  set  are  the  ofFspring  of  the  third  Jupiter 
and  Mnemosyne,  nine  in  number  ;  the  third  set  are 
the  daughters  of  Pierus  and  Antiope,  and  are  usually 
called  by  the  poets  the  Pierides  or  Pierian  Maidens  ; 
they  are  the  same  in  number  and  have  the  same  names 
as  the  next  preceding  set.  The  sun's  name  Sol  you 
derive  "  from  his  being  sole  of  his  kind,  but  tKe  theo- 
logians  produce  a  number  even  of  Suns  !    One  is  the 

^  son  of  Jove  and  grandson  of  Aether  ;/%nQth&r  the 
son  of  Hyperion  ;  the  thirdjpf  Vulcan  the  son  of  Nile, 
— this  is  the  one  -svho  the  Egyptians  say  is  lord  of  the 
city  named  Heliopolis  ^the  fourth  is  the  one  to  whom 
Acanthe  is  said  to  have  given  birth  at  Rhodes  in 
the  heroic  age,  the  father  of  lalysus,  Camirus,  Lindus 
and  Rhodus  ;    the  fifth  is  the  one  said  to  have  be- 

56  gotten  Aeetes  and  Circe  at  Colchi.  XXII.  There  are 
also  severarVulcans  ;  the  first,  the  son  of  the  Sky, 
was  reputed  the  father  by  Minerva  of  the  Apollo 
said  by  the  ancient  historians  to  be  the  tutelary  deity 
of  Athens  ;  the  second,  the  son  of  Nile,  is  named  by 
the  Egyptians  Phthas,  and  is  deemed  the  guardian  of 
Egypt ;  the  third  is  the  son  of  the  third  Jupiter  and 
of  Juno,  and  is  fabled  to  have  been  the  master  of  a 
smithy  at  Lemnos  ;  the  fourth  is  the  son  of  Memahus, 
and  lord  of  the  islands  near  Sicily  which  used  to  be       ^      't 

66  named  the  Isles  of  Vulcan.^     One  Mercury  has  the  f^.-s/^^^J 
Sky  for  father  and  the  Day  for  mother  ;  he  is  repre-  ^ 

sented  in  a  state  of  sexual  excitation  traditionally 

339 


CICERO 

excitata  natura  traditur  quod  aspectu  Proserpinae 
commotus  sit,  alter  Valentis  et  Phoronidis^  filius  is 
qui  sub  terris  habetur  idem  Trophonius,  tertius  love 
tertio  natus  et  Maia,  ex  quo  et  Penelopa  Pananatum 
ferunt,  quartus  Nilo  patre,  quem  Aegyptii  nefas 
habent  nominare,  quintus  quem  colunt  Pheneatae, 
qui  Argum  dicitur  interemisse  ob  eamque  causam 
Aegyptum  profugisse  atque  Aegyptiis  leges  et  litteras 
tradidisse :  hunc  Aegyptii  Theuth^  appellant, 
eodemque    nomine    anni    primus   mensis    apud    eos 

67  vocatur.  Aesculapiorum  primus  Apolhnis,  quem 
Arcades  colunt,  qui  specillum  invenisse  primusque 
vohius  dicitur  obhga\dsse,  secundus  secundi  Mercurii 
frater  :  is  fulmine  percussus  dicitur  humatus  esse 
Cynosuris  ;  tertius  Arsippi  et  Arsinoae,  qui  primus 
purgationem  alvi  dentisque  evolsionem  ut  ferunt 
invenit,  cuius  in  Arcadia  non  longe  a  Lusio  flumine 
sepulcrum  et  lucus  ostenditur.  XXIII.  Apollinum 
antiquissimus  is  quem  paulo  antea^  e  Vulcano  natum 
esse  dixi  custodem  Athenarum,  alter  Corybantis 
fihus  natus  in  Creta,  cuius  de  illa  insula  cum  love 
ipso  certamen  fuisse  traditur,  tertius  love  tertio 
natus  etLatona,  quem  ex  Hyperboreis  Delphos  ferunt 
advenisse,  quartus  in  Arcadia,  quem  Arcades  No/xtov* 
appellant    quod    ab    eo    se    leges    ferunt    accepisse. 

58  Dianae  item   plures  :    prima   lovis   et   Proserpinae, 

*  Coronidis  Daviea.  ^  Theuth  Baiter  :  Theyn. 

•  ante  ci,  Plasberg,  *  'Nd/uoy  Huet :  nomionem. 

340 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxii.— xxiii. 

said  to  be  due  to  passion  inspired  by  the  sight  of 
Proserpine.  Another  is  the  son  of  Valens  and 
Phoronis  ;  this  is  the  subterranean  Mercury  identi- 
fied  with  Trophonius.  The  third,  the  son  of  the 
third  Jove  and  of  Maia,  the  legends  make  the  father 
of  Pan  by  Penelope.  The  fourth  has  Nile  for  father  ; 
the  Egyptians  deem  it  sinful  to  pronounce  his  name. 
The  fifth,  worshipped  by  the  people  of  Pheneus,  is 
said  to  have  killed  Argus  and  consequently  to  have 
fled  in  exile  to  Egypt,  where  he  gave  the  Egyptians 
their  laws  and  letters.  His  Egyptian  name  is  Theuth, 
which  is  also  the  name  in  the  Egyptian  calendar  for 

67  the  first  month  of  the  year.  Of  the  various^esculapii 
the  first  is  the  son  of  Apollo,  and  is  worshipped  by  the 
Arcadians  ;  he  is  reputed  to  have  invented  the  probe 
and  to  have  been  the  first  surgeon  to  employ  spHnts. 
The  second  is  the  brother  of  the  second  ^lercury  ;  he 
is  said  to  have  been  struck  by  lightning  and  buried  at 
Cynosura.  The  third  is  the  son  of  Arsippus  and 
Arsinoe,  and  is  said  to  have  first  invented  the  use  of 
purges  and  the  extraction  of  teeth  ;  his  tomb  and 
grove  are  shown  in  Arcadia,  not  far  from  the  river 
Lusius.  XXIII.  The  most  ancient  of  the  ApollosJs 
the  one  whom  I  stated  just  before  to  be  the  son  of 
Vulcan  and  the  guardian  of  Athens.  The  second  is 
the  son  of  Corybas,  and  was  born  in  Crete  ;  tradition 
says  that  he  fought  with  Jupiter  himself  for  the 
possession  of  that  island.  The  third  is  the  son  of  the 
third  Jupiter  and  of  Latona,  and  is  reputed  to  have 
come  to  Delphi  from  the  Hyperboreans.  The  fourth 
belongs  to  Arcadia,  and  is  called  by  the  Arcadians 

58  No?nios,  as  being  their  traditional  lawgiver.     Like- 

wise  there  are  several  Dianas.    The  first,  daughter  of     ^^ 
Jupiter  and  Proserpine,  is  said  to  have  given  birth  to 

341 


CICERO 

quae  pinnatum  Cupidinem  genuisse  dicitur  ;  secunda 
notior,  quam  love  tertio  et  Latona  natam  accepl- 
mus  ;  tertiae  pater  Upis  traditur  Glauce  mater  : 
eam  saepe  Graeci  Upim  paterno  nomine  appellant. 
Dionysos  multos  habemus:  primum  love  et  Proserpina 
natum,  secundum  Nilo,  qui  Nysam  dicitur  inter- 
emisse,  tertium  Cabiro  patre,  eumque  regem  Asiae 
praefuisse  dicunt,  cui  Sabazia  sunt  instituta,  quartum 
love  et  Luna,  cui  sacra  Orphica  putantur  confici, 
quintum  Niso  natum  et  Thyone,  a  quo  Trieterides 

69  constitutae  putantur.  Venus  prima  Caelo  et  Die 
nata,  cuius  Ehde  delubrum  vidimus,  altera  spuma 
procreata,  ex  qua  et  Mercurio  Cupidinem  secundum 
natum  accepimus,  tertia  love  nata  et  Diona,  quae 
nupsit  Volcano,  sed  ex  ea  et  Marte  natus  Anteros 
dicitur,  quarta  Syria  Cyproque  concepta,^  quae  Astarte 
vocatur,  quam  Adonidi  nupsisse  proditum  est.  Mi- 
nerva  prima,  quam  Apolhnis  matrem  supra  diximus, 
secunda  orta  Nilo,  quam  Aegyptii  Saitae  colunt, 
tertia  illa  quam  a  love  generatam  supra  diximus, 
quarta  love  nata  et  Coryphe  Oceani  fiha,  quam  Ar- 
cades  KopLav  nominant  et  quadrigarum  inventricem 
ferunt,  quinta  Pallantis,  quae  patrem  dicitur  inter- 
emisse  virginitatem  suam  violare  conantem,  cui  pin- 

60  narum  talaria  adfigunt.    Cupido  primus  Mercurio  et 

'  a  Syria  Cyproque  accepta  ?  Mayor. 

"  Perhaps  the    Latin    should    be  altered    to    give    '  we 
obtained  from  Syria  and  Cyprus.' 

342 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxiii. 

the  ^\inged  Cupid.    The  second  is  more  celebrated  ; 

tradition  makes  her  the  daughter  of  the  third  Jupiter 

and  of  Latona.    The  father  of  the  third  is  recorded  to 

have  been  Upis,  and  her  mother  Glauce  ;  the  Greeks 

often  call  her  by  her  father's  name  of  Upis.    We  have 

a  number  of  Dionysi.    The.£rst_is  the  son  of  Jupiter       5    Z^' 

and  Proserpine  ;  tnesecond.  of  Xile — he  is  the  fabled 

slayer  of  Nysa.     The  father  of  the  third  is  Cabirus  ; 

it  is  stated  that  he  was  king  over  Asia,  and  the 

Sabazia  were  instituted  in  his  honour.     The  fourth. 

is  the  son  of  Jupiter  and  Luna  ;  the  Orphic  rites  are 

beheved  to  be  celebrated  in  his  honour.    The,:fifth  is 

the  son  of  Nisus  and  Thyone,  and  is  beheved  to  have 

59  cstabUshed  the  Trieterid  festival.  The  first  Venus  is 
the  daughter  of  the  Sky  and  the  Day  ;  I  have  seen 
her  temple  at  EHs.  The  second  was  engendered  from 
the  sea-foam,  and  as  we  are  told  became  the  mother 
by  Mercury  of  the  second  Cupid.  The  third  is  the 
daughter  of  Jupiter  and  Dione,  who  wedded  Vulcan, 
but  who  is  said  to  have  been  the  mother  of  Anteros  by 
Mars.    The  fourth  was  conceived  of  Syria  and  Cyprus," 

and  is  called  Astarte  ;  it  is  recorded  that  she  married  . 

Adonis.  The  first  Minerva  is  the  one  whom  we  men-  -«s,  P^'^^^ 
tioned  above  as  the  mother  of  Apollo.  The  second 
sprang  from  the  Nile,  and  is  worshipped  by  the 
Egyptians  of  Sais.  The  third  is  she  whom  we  men- 
tioned  above  as  begotten  by  Jupiter.  The  fourth  is 
the  daughter  of  Jupiter  and  Coryphe  the  daughter  of 
Oceanus,  and  is  called  Koria  by  the  Arcadians,  who 
say  that  she  was  the  inventor  of  the  four-horsed 
chariot.  The  fifth  is  Pallas,  who  is  said  to  have  slain 
her  father  when  he  attempted  to  violate  her  maiden- 
hood  ;  she  is  represented  with  wings  attached  to  her 

60  ankles.    The  first  Cupid  is  said  to  be  the  son  of  Mer- 


CICERO 

Diana  prima  natus  dicitur,  secundus  Mercurio  et 
Venere  secunda,  tertius  qui  idem  est  Anteros  Marte 
et  Venere  tertia.  Atque  haec  quidem  aliaque  eius 
modi  ex  vetere  Graeciae  fama  collecta  sunt,  quibus 
intellegis  resistendum  esse  ne  perturbentur  reli- 
giones  ;  vestri  autem  non  modo  haec  non  refellunt 
verum  etiam  confirmant  interpretando  quorsum 
quidque  pertineat.  Sed  eo  iam  unde  huc  digressi 
sumus  revertamur. 


6i  XXI\\  **  .  .  .  Num  censes  igitur  subtiliore  ratione 
opus  esse  ad  haec  refellenda  }  Nam  mentem  fidem 
spem  virtutem  honorem  victoriam  salutem  concordiam 
ceteraque  eius  modi  rerum  vim  habere  videmus,  non 
deorum.  Aut  enim  in  nobismet  insunt  ipsis,  ut  mens 
ut  spes  ut  fides  ut  virtus  ut  concordia,  aut  optandae 
nobis  sunt,  ut  honos  ut  salus  ut  victoria  ;  quarum 
rerum  utihtatem  video,  video  etiam  consecrata 
simulacra,  quare  autem  in  iis  vis  deorum  insit  tum 
intellegam  cum^  cognovero.  Quo  in  genere  vel 
maxime  est  Fortuna  numeranda,  quam  nemo  ab 
inconstantia  et  temeritate  seiunget,  quae  digna  certe 
non  sunt  deo. 

62  "  lam  vero  quid  vos  illa  delectat  explicatio  fabula- 
rum  et  enodatio  nominum  .''  Exsectum  a  fiho  Caelum, 
vinctum  itidem  a  fiho  Saturnum,  haec  et  aha  generis 
eius('em  ita  defenditis  ut  ii  qui  ista  finxerunt  non 

^  cum  <ex  te>  Bouhier. 

<»  See  note  on  §  53.     The  introduction  of  the  next  topio 
seems  to  have  been  lost. 
3i4 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxiii.— xxiv. 

cury  and  the  first  Diana,  the  second  of  Mercury  and 
the  second  Venus,  and  the  third,  who  is  the  same  as 
Anteros,  of  Mars  and  the  third  Venus. 

"  These  and  other  similar  fables  have  been  cuUed 
from  the  ancient  traditions  of  Greece  ;  you  are  aware 
that  we  ought  to  combat  tliem,  so  that  reHgion  may 
not  be  undermined.  Your  school  however  not  merely 
do  not  refute  them,  but  actually  confirm  them  by 
interpreting  their  respective  meanings.  But  let  us 
now  return  to  the  point  from  which  we  digressed  to 
this  topic. 


61  XXIV.  "'*   ...  Do  you  then  think  that  any  more  For  the 
subtle  argument  is  needed  to  refute  these  notions  ?  demed  ab- 
Intelligence,   faith,    hope,    virtue,   honour,   victory,  ■^tractions 
safety,  concord  and  the  other  things  of  this  nature  and^so^"'^  ' 
are    obviously    abstractions,    not    personal    deities.  ^[fe^oriza 
For  they  are  either  properties  inherent  in  ourselves,  tions  and 
for  instance  intelhgence,  hope,  faith,  virtue,  concord,  etym'c>'^ 
or  objects  of  our  desire,  for  instance  honour,  safety,  logiis. 
victory.     I  see  that  they  have  value,  and  I  am  also 
aware  that  statues  are  dedicated  to  them  ;   but  why 

they  should  be  held  to  possess  divinity  is  a  thing  that 
I  cannot  understand  without  further  enhghtenment. 
Fortune  has  a  very  strong  claim  to  be  counted  in  this 
list,  and  nobody  will  dissociate  fortune  from  incon- 
stancy  and  haphazard  action,  which  are  certainly 
unworthy  of  a  deity. 

62  "  Again,  why  are  you  so  fond  of  those  allegorizing 
and  etymological  methods  of  explaining  the  mytho- 
logy  .''  The  mutilation  of  Caelus  by  his  son,  and  like- 
wise  the  imprisonment  of  Saturn  by  his,  these  and 
similar  figments  you  rationalize  so  effectively  as  to 

345 


CICERO 

modo  non  insani  sed  etiam  fuisse  sapientes  videantur. 
In  enodandis  autem  nominibus  quod  miserandum  sit 
iaboratis  :  *  Saturnus  quia  se  saturat  annis,  Mavors 
quia  magna  vertit,  Minerva  quia  minuit  aut  quia 
minatur,  Venus  quia  venit  ad  omnia,  Ceres  a  gerendo.' 
Quam  periculosa  consuetudo  ;  in  multis  enim  nomini- 
bus  haerebitis  :  quid  Veiovi  facies,  quid  Volcano  ? 
quamquam  quoniam  Neptunum  a  nando  appellatum 
putas,  nullum  erit  nomen  quod  non  possis  una  littera 
explicare  unde  ductum  sit ;  in  quo  quidem  magis  tu 

63  mihi  natare  visus  es  quam  ipse  Neptunus.  Magnam 
molestiam  suscepit  et  minime  necessariam  primus 
Zeno  post  Cleanthes  deinde  Chrysippus,  commenti- 
ciarum  fabularum  reddere  rationem,  vocabulorum^ 
cur  quidque  ita  appellatum  sit  causas  expUcare. 
Quod  cum  facitis,  illud  profecto  confitemini,  longe 
aUter  se  rem  habere  atque  hominum  opinio  sit ;  eos 
enim  qui  di  appellantur  rerum  naturas  esse  non 
figuras  deorum.  XXV.  Qui  tantus  error  fuit  ut 
perniciosis  etiam  rebus  non  modo  nomen  deorum 
tribueretur  sed  etiam  sacra  constituerentur  ;  Febris 
enim  fanum  in  Palatio  et  <Orbonae  ad>^  aedem 
Larum  et  aram  Malae  Fortunae  EsquiUis  consecra- 

64  tam  videmus.  Omnis  igitur  tahs  a  philosophia 
pellatur  error  ut  cum  de  dis  inmortahbus  disputemus 
dicamus  indigna^  dis  immortaUbus  ;  de  quibus  habeo 
ipse  quod*  sentiam,  non  habeo  autem  quod*  tibi 
adsentiar.    Neptunum  esse  dicis  animum  cum  intelle- 

^  vocabulorumque  dett. 
2  add,  ed.  Bononiensis  1494. 
■  indigna  det.  :  digna  B^  cett.  valde  corrupti. 
■«quod  .  .  .  quod  Ernesti :  quid  .  .  .  quid. 

"  For  this  and  the  foUowing  etymologies  see  ii.  64-67. 

^  Or  perhaps  "  tind  out  the  derivation  by  the  hght  of  one 
letter.' 
846 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxiv.— xxv. 

make  out  their  authors  to  have  been  not  only  not 
idiots,  but  actually  philosophers.  But  as  for  your 
strained  etymologies,  one  can  only  pity  your  mis- 
placed  ingenuity  !  Saturnus  is  so  called  because  he 
is  '  sated  with  years,'  °  Mavors  because  he  '  subverts 
the  great,'  Minerva  because  she  '  minishes,'  or  be- 
cause  she  is  *  minatory,'  Venus  because  she  '  visits  ' 
all  things,  Ceres  from  gero  '  to  bear.'  What  a  dan- 
gerous  practice  !  with  a  great  many  names  you  will 
be  in  difficulties.  What  will  you  make  of  Vejovis,  or 
Vulcan  ?  though  since  you  think  the  name  Neptune 
comes  from  nare  '  to  swim,'  there  will  be  no  name  of 
whichyou  couldnot  make  the  derivation  clearby  alter- 
ing  one  letter  ^  :  in  this  matter  you  seem  to  me  to  be 

63  more  at  sea  than  Neptune  himself !  A  great  deal  of 
quite  unnecessary  trouble  was  taken  first  by  Zeno,  then 
by  Cleanthes  and  lastly  by  Chrysippus,  to  rationaUze 
these  purely  fanciful  myths  and  explain  the  reasons 
for  the  names  by  which  the  various  deities  are  called. 
But  in  so  doing  you  clearly  admit  that  the  facts  are 
widely  different  from  men's  beUef,  since  the  so-called 
gods  are  really  properties  of  things,  not  divine  persons 
at  all.  XXV.  So  far  did  this  sort  of  error  go,  that 
even  harmful  things  were  not  only  given  the  names 
of  gods  but  actually  had  forms  of  worship  instituted 
in  their  honour  :  witness  the  temple  to  Fever  on  the 
Palatine,  that  of  Orbona  the  goddess  of  bereavement 
close  to  the  shrine  of  the  Lares,  and  the  altar  conse- 

64  crated  to  Misfortune  on  the  Esquiline.  Let  us  there- 
fore  banish  from  philosophy  entirely  the  error  of 
making  assertions  in  discussing  the  immortal  gods 
that  are  derogatory  to  their  dignity  :  a  subject  on 
which  I  know  what  views  to  hold  myself,  but  do  not 
know  how  to  agree  to  your  views.    You  say  that  Nep- 

S47 


CICERO 

gentia  per  mare  pertinentem,  idem  de  Cerere ; 
istam  autem  intellegentiam  aut  maris  aut  terrae 
non  modo  comprehendere  animo  sed  ne  suspicione 
quidem  possum  attingere.  Itaque  aliunde  mihi 
quaerendum  est  ut  et  esse  deos  et  quales  sint  di 
discere  possim ;  quahs  tu  eos  esse  vis  <vide  ne  esse 
65  non  possint.  Nunc^  videamus  ea  quae  sequuntur, 
primum  deorum<ne>  providentia  mundus  regatur, 
deinde  consulantne  di  rebus  humanis.  Haec  enim 
mihi  ex  tua  partitione  restant  duo  ;  de  quibus  si 
vobis  videtur  accuratius  disserendum  puto." 

"  Mihi  vero  "  inquit  Velleius  "  valde  videtur  ;  nam 
et  maiora  exspecto  et  iis  quae  dicta  sunt  vehementer 
adsentior." 

Tum  Balbus  "  Interpellare  te  "  inquit  "  Cotta, 
nolo,  sed  sumemus  tempus  ahud  ;  efficiam  profecto 
ut  fateare.  Sed  .  .  . 


nequaquam  istuc  istac  ibit ;  magna  inest  certatio. 
nam  ut  ego  illi  supplicarem  tanta  blandiloquentia, 
ni  ob  rem  ^ — 

66  XXVI.  Parumne  ratiocinari  videtur  et  sibi  ipsa 
nefariam  pestem  machinari  ?  IUud  vero  quam  calhda 
ratione  : 

qui  volt^  quod  volt,  ita  dat  se  res  ut  operam  dabit — 

^  supplet  Plasherg. 
•  ni  ob  rem  Vahlen  :  niobem.         '  volt  esse  dett. 


<»  A  considerable  passage  hias  been  lost,  part  of  it  being 
according  to  Plasberg  thefragments  preserved  by  Lactantius ; 
see  p.  384-. 

*  These  verses  are  from  the  Medea  of  Ennius,  and  corre- 
spond  to  Euripides,  Medea  365  ff. 
S4.8 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxv.— xxvi. 

tune  is  the  rational  soul  that  pervades  the  sea  ;   and 
similarly  for  Ceres  ;  but  your  notion  of  the  sea  or  the 
land  possessing  a  rational  intelligence  is  not  merely 
something  that  I  cannot  fully  understand,  but  I  have 
not  the  shghtest  inkhng  what  it  means.    Accordingly 
I  must  seek  elsewhere  for  instruction  both  as  to  the 
existence  and  as  to  the  nature  of  the  gods  ;  as  for 
your  account  of  them  <perhaps  it  may  be  impossible. 
65  Now>  let  us  consider  the  next  topics — first  whether  m.  Provi. 
the  world  is  ruled  by  divine  providence.  and  then  ^*^"tiai 
whether  the  gods  have  regard  for  the  affairs  of  man-  of  the 
kind.     For  these  are  the  two  that  I  have  left  of  the  "§"55^^ 
heads  into  which  you  divided  the  subject  ;  and  if  you 
gentlemen  approve,  I  feel  that  they  require  a  some- 
what  detailed  discussion." 

"  For  my  part,"  said  Velleius,  "  I  approve  entirely, 
for  I  anticipate  something  more  important  still  to 
come,  and  I  also  strongly  agree  ^vith  what  has  been 
said  ah'eady." 

"  I  do  not  want  to  interrupt  you  with  questions," 
added  Balbus,  "  we  vWll  take  another  time  for  that  : 
I  warrant  I  will  bring  you  to  agree.    But  .  ,  .  " 


Nay,  'twill  not  be  ;  a  struggle  is  in  store,  £V.  Provi- 

What,  should  I  fawn  on  him  and  speak  him  fair,  dential  care 

Save  for  my  purpose — **  forman(§65 

^  ^     ^  toend). 

66  XXVI.  Is  there  any  lack  of  reasoning  here,  think  you,  '^^^^,  §^'^  °' 
and  is  she  not  plotting  dire   disaster  for  herself  ?  injury 
Again,  how  cleverly  reasoned  is  the  saying  :  rbenefltl'^" 

For  him  that  wills  that  which  he  wills,  the  event  from'^^^ 

Shall  be  as  he  shall  make  it !  *  tragedy. 

•  '  Where  there's  a  will  there's  a  way.'    The  quotation  is 
assigned  to  Ennius. 

N  S49 


CICERO 

qui  est  versus  omnium  seminator  malorum. 

ille  traversa  mente  mi  hodie  tradidit  repagula 

quibus  ego  iram  omnem  recludam  atque  illi  perniciem  dabo, 

mihi  maerores  illi  luctum,  exitium  illi  exilium  mihi. 

Hanc  videlicet  rationem,  quam  vos  divino  beneficio 
homini  solum  tributam  dicitis,  bestiae  non  habent ; 

67  videsne  igitur  quanto  munere  deorum  simus  adfecti  ? 
Atque  eadem  Medea  patrem  patriamque  fugiens, 

postquam  pater 
adpropinquat  iamque  paene  ut  conprehendatur  parat, 
puerum  interea  obtruncat  membraque  articulatim  dividit 
perque  agros  passim  dispergit  corpus  :  id  ea  gratia 
ut,  dum  nati  dissipatos  artus  captaret  parens, 
ipsa  interea  effugeret,  illum  ut  maeror  tardaret  sequi, 
sibi  salutem  ut  familiari  pareret  parricidio. 

68  Huic  ut  scelus  sic  ne  ratio  quidem  defuit.  Quid  ? 
ille  funestas  epulas  fratri  conparans  nonne  versat  huc 
et  illuc  cogitatione  rationem  ? 

maior  mihi  moles,  maius  miscendumst  malum, 
qui  illius  acerbum  cor  contundam  et  conprimam. 

XXVII.  Nec  tamen  ille  ipse  est  praetereundus 

qui  non  sat  habuit  coniugem  inlexe  in  stuprum, 

de  quo  recte  et  verissume  loquitur  Atreus  : 


*•  Again  from  the  Medea  of  Ennius  ;  ef.  Eur.  Med.  371  f., 
394  ff. 

"  Possibly  from  the  Medea  of  Accius,  cf.  ii.  89.    This  part 
of  the  story  is  not  in  Euripides. 

*■  This  and  the  three  following  quotations  are  from  the 
Atreus  of  Acciiis.    Atreus  deliberates  how  to  take  vengeance 
on  his  brother  Thyestes  for  seducing  his  wife  Aerope. 
350 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxvi.— xxvii. 

Yet  this  verse  contains  the  seeds  of  every  kind  of 
mischief. 

He  with  misguided  mind 
This  day  hath  put  the  keys  into  my  hand 
Wherewith  I  will  unlock  my  utmost  wrath 
And  work  his  ruin  ;  grief  shall  be  my  portion 
And  sorrow  his  ;  mine  exile,  his  extinction.* 

This  gift  of  reason  forsooth,  which  according  to  your 
school  divine  beneficence  has  bestowed  on  man  alone, 

67  the  beasts  do  not  possess  ;  do  you  see  then  how  great 
a  boon  the  gods  have  vouchsafed  to  us  ?  And  Medea 
hke^\ise,  when  flying  from  her  father  and  her  father- 
land, 

when  her  sire  drew  near, 
And  now  was  all  but  in  the  act  to  seize  her, 
Her  boy  she  did  behead,  and  joint  by  joint 
Severed  his  Hmbs,  and  all  about  the  fields 
His  body  strewed  :  the  same  with  this  intent, 
That,  while  her  father  strove  to  gather  up 
Her  son's  dismember'd  members,  in  the  meantime 
She  might  herself  escape,  so  that  his  grief 
Should  hinder  his  pursuit,  and  she  win  safety 
By  most  unnatural  murder  of  her  kin.* 

68  Medea  was  criminal,  but  also  she  was  perfectly 
rational.  Again,  does  not  the  hero  plotting  the 
direful  banquet  for  his  brother  turn  the  design  this 
way  and  that  in  his  thoughts  ? 

More  must  I  moil  and  bigger  bale  must  brew, 
Whereby  to  quell  and  crush  his  cruel  heart.* 

XXVII.  Nor  must  we  pass  over  Thyestes  himself,  who 

Was  not  content  to  tempt  my  wife  to  sin — 

an  offence  of  which  Atreus  speaks  correctly  and  ^ith 
perfect  truth — 

351 


CICERO 

,  .  .  quod  re  in  summa  summum  esse  arbitror 

periclum,  matres  coinquinari  regias, 
contaminari  stirpem  ac  misceri^  genus. 

At  id  ipsum   quam  callide,  qui  regnum   adulterio 
quaereret : 

adde^  (inquit)  huc,  quod  mihi  portento  caelestum  pater 
prodigium  misit,  regni  stabilimen  mei, 
agnum  inter  pecudes  aurea  clarum  coma 
quondam  Thyestem  clepere  ausum  esse  e  regia, 
qua  in  re  adiutricem  coniugem  cepit  sibi. 

69  Videtume  summa  inprobitate  usus  non  sine  summa 
esse  ratione  ?  Nec  vero  scaena  solum  referta  est  his 
sceleribus,  sed  multo*  vita  communis  paene  maioribus. 
Sentit  domus  unius  cuiusque,  sentit  forum,  sentit 
curia  campus  socii  provinciae,  ut  quem  ad  modum 
ratione  recte  fiat  sic  ratione  peccetur,  alterumque 
et  a  paucis  et  raro,  alterum  et  saepe  et  a  plurimis, 
ut  satius  fuerit  nullam  omnino  nobis  a  dis  in- 
mortalibus  datam  esse  rationem  quam  tanta  cum 
pernicie  datam.  Ut  vinum  aegrotis,  quia  prodest 
raro  nocet  saepissime,  melius  est  non  adhibere  om- 
nino  quam  spe  dubiae  salutis  in  apertam  perniciem 
incurrere,  sic  haud  scio  an  mehus  fuerit  humano 
generi  motum  istum  celerem  cogitationis,  acumen, 
sollertiam^  quam  rationem  vocamus,  quoniam  pesti- 
fera  est  multis,  admodum  paucis  salutaris,  non  dari 

*  ac  misceri  Ribheck  :  admisceri. 

*  adde  Scriverius  :  addo. 

•  multo  <magis>  ?  Mayor, 

852 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxvii. 

the  which  I  deem  the  heiprht  of  peril 
In  matters  of  high  state,  if  royal  mothers 
Shall  be  debauched,  the  royal  blood  corrupted, 
The  hneage  mixed. 

But  how  craftily  this  very  crime  is  plotted  by  his 
brother,  employing  adultery  as  a  means  to  gain  tlie 
throne  : 

Thereto  withal  (says  Atreus)  the  heavenly  sire  did  send  nie 

A  warning  portent,  to  confirm  my  reign — 

A  lamb,  con?;picuous  among  the  flock 

With  fleece  of  gold,  Thyestes  once  did  dare 

To  steal  from  out  my  palace,  and  in  this  deed 

My  consort  did  suborn  as  his  accompHce. 

69  Do  you  see  that  Thyestes,  while  acting  with  extreme 
wickedness,  displayed  complete  rationality  as  M-ell  ? 
And  not  only  does  the  stage  teem  with  crimes  of  this 
sort,  but  ordinary  life  even  more  so,  and  with  almost 
worse  crimes.  Our  private  homes  ;  the  law-courts, 
the  senate,  the  hustings  ;  our  allies,  our  provinces — 
all  have  cause  to  know  that  just  as  right  actions  may 
be  guided  by  reason,  so  also  may  wrong  ones,  and 
that  whereas  few  men  do  the  former,  and  on  rare 
occasions,  so  very  many  do  the  latter,  and  frequently  ; 
so  that  it  would  have  been  better  if  the  immortal  gods 
had  not  bestowed  upon  us  any  reasoning  faculty  at 
all  than  that  they  should  have  bestowed  it  with  such 
mischievous  results.  Wine  is  seldom  beneficial  and 
very  often  harmful  to  the  sick,  and  therefore  it  is 
better  not  to  give  it  to  them  at  all  than  to  run  a 
certain  risk  of  injury  in  the  doubtful  hope  of  a  cure  ; 
similarly  it  would  perhaps  have  been  better  if  that 
nimbleness  and  penetration  and  cleverness  of  thought 
which  we  term  *  reason,'  being  as  it  is  disastrous  to 
many  and  wholesome  to  but  few,  had  never  been  given 
to  thc  human  race  at  all,  than  that  it  should  have  been 

352 


CICERO 

70  omnino  quam  tam  munitice  et  tam  large  dari.  Quam 
ob  rem  si  mens  voluntasque  divina  idcirco  consuluit 
hominibus  quod  iis  est  largita  rationem,  iis  solis  con- 
suluit  quos  bona  ratione  donavit,  quos  videmus  si 
modo  uUi  sunt  esse  perpaucos.  Non  placet  autem 
paucis  a  dis  inmortalibus  esse  consultum  ;  sequitur 
erffo  ut  nemini  consultum  sit. 

o 

XXVIII.  "  Huic  loco  sic  soletis  occurrere  :  non 
idcirco  non  optume  nobis  a  dis  esse  provisum  quod 
multi  eorum  beneficio  perverse  uterentur  ;  etiam 
patrimoniis  multos  male  uti,  nec  ob  eam  causam  eos 
beneficium  a  patribus  nullum  habere.  Quisquamne 
Istuc  negat  ?  aut  quae  est  in  coUatione  ista  simiUtudo  ? 
Nec  enim  Herculi  nocere  Deianira  voluit  cum  ei 
tunicam  sanguine  Centauri  tinctam  dedit,  nec 
prodesse  Pheraeo  lasoni  is  qui  gladio  vomicam  eius 
aperuit  quam  sanare  medici  non  potuerant.  Multi 
enim  et  cum  obesse  vellent  profuerunt  et  cum  pro- 
desse  obfuerunt  ;  ita  non  fit  ex  eo  quod  datur  ut 
voluntas  eius  qui  dederit  appareat,  nec  si  is  qui 
accepit  bene  utitur,  idcirco  is  qui  dedit  amice  dedit. 

71  Quae  enim  libido  quae  avaritia  quod  facinus  aut 
suscipitur  nisi  consilio  capto  aut  sine  animi  motu  et 
cogitatione,  id  est  ratione,  perficitur  ?  Nam  omnis 
opinio  ratio  est,  et  quidem  bona  ratio  si  vera,  mala 
autem  si  falsa  est  opinio.  Sed  a  deo  tantum  ratio- 
nem    habemus,   si    modo   habemus,   bonam    autem 

"  Pliny,  N.H.  vii.  51,  implies   that  this   was   a  wound 
inflictcd  hy  an  enemy  in  battlc :  Seneca,  Benef.  ii.  18.  8, 
seems  to  spcak  of  the  attempt  of  an  assassin. 
354 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxvii.— xxviii. 

70  given  in  such  bounteous  abundance.    If  therefore  the  Oniy  the 
divine  intelhgence  and  will  displayed  care  for  men's  usa^o?"^ 
^\  elfare  because  it  bestowed  upon  them  reason,  it  reason  is 
cared  for  the  welfare  of  those  only  to  whom  it  gave  and^hat ' 
virtuous  reason,  whom  we  see  to  be  very  few,  if  not  dependson 

,      -  .  __.  ,  •'  '  ourselves. 

entirely  non-existent.  \V  e  cannot,  nowever,  suppose 
that  the  immortal  gods  have  cared  for  only  a  few  ; 
it  follows  therefore  that  they  have  cared  for  none. 

XXVIII.  "  This  line  of  argument  is  usually  met  by 
your  school  thus  :  it  does  not  follow,  you  say,  that 
the  gods  have  not  made  the  best  provision  for  us 
because  many  men  employ  their  bounty  \^Tongly  ; 
many  men  make  bad  use  of  their  inheritances,  but 
this  does  not  prove  that  they  have  received  no  benefit 
from  their  fathers.  Does  anybody  deny  this  ?  and 
where  is  the  analogy  in  your  comparison  ?  When 
Deianira  gave  Hercules  the  shirt  soaked  in  the 
Centaur's  blood,  she  did  not  intend  to  injure  him. 
When  the  soldier  with  a  stroke  of  his  sword  opened 
Jason  of  Pherae's  tumour  which  the  physicians  had 
failed  to  cure,  he  did  not  intend  to  do  him  good.** 
Plenty  of  people  have  done  good  when  they  intended 
to  do  harm  and  harm  when  they  intended  to  do  good. 
The  nature  of  the  gift  does  not  disclose  the  will  of  the 
giver,  and  the  fact  that  the  recipient  makes  good  use 
of  it  does  not  prove  that  the  giver  gave  it  with  friendly 

71  intentions.  Is  there  a  single  act  of  lust,  of  avarice 
or  of  crime,  which  is  not  entered  on  dehberately  or 
which  is  not  carried  out  with  active  exercise  of 
thought,  that  is,  by  aid  of  the  reason  ?  inasmuch  as 
every  behef  is  an  activity  of  reason — and  of  reason 
that  is  a  good  thing  if  the  beUef  is  true,  but  a  bad 
thing  if  it  is  false.  But  god  bestows  upon  us  (if 
indeed  he  does)  merely  reason — it  is  we  who  make 

355 


CICERO 

rationem  aut  non  bonam  a  nobis.  Non  enim  ut  patri- 
monium  relinquitur  sic  ratio  est  homini  beneficio 
deorum  data  ;  quid  enim  potius  hominibus  dedissent 
si  iis  nocere  voluissent  ?  iniustitiae  autem  intem- 
perantiae  timiditatis  quae  semina  essent,  si  his  vitiis 
ratio  non  subesset  ? 

XXIX.  "  Medea  modo    et    Atreus    commemora- 
bantur  a  nobis,  heroicae  personae,  inita  subductaque 

72  ratione  nefaria  scelera  meditantes.  Quid  ?  levitates 
comicae  parumne  semper  in  ratione  versantur  ? 
parumne  subtiliter  disputat  ille  in  Eunucho  : 

quid  igitur  faciam  ?  .  .  . 

exclusit,  revocat ;  redeam  ?  non  si  me  obsecret. 

Ille  vero  in  Synephebis  Academicorum  more  contra 

communem  opinionem  non  dubitat  pugnare  ratione, 

qui  *  in  amore    sunimo '  *  summaque   inopia  '   suave 

esse  dicit 

parentem  habere  avarum,  inlepidum,  in  liberos 
difficilem,  qui  te  nec  amet  nec  studeat  tui — 

73  atque  huic  incredibih  sententiae  ratiunculas  sug- 
gerit  : 

aut  tu  illum  fructu  fallas  aut  per  litteras 
avertas  aliquod  nomen  aut  per  servolum 
percutias  pavidum  ;  postremo  a  parco  patre 
quod  sumas,  quanto  dissipes  libentius  ! 

Idemque  facilem  et  hberalem  patrem  incommodum 
esse  amanti  filio  disputat  : 

•  Terence,  Eun.  Act  i.  init, 
"  See  on  i.  13. 

S56 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxviii.— xxix. 

it  good  or  the  reverse.  The  divine  bestowal  of  reason 
upon  man  is  not  in  itself  an  act  of  beneficence,  like 
the  bequest  of  an  estate  ;  for  what  other  gift  could  the 
gods  have  given  to  men  in  preference  if  their  intention 
had  been  to  do  them  harm  ?  and  from  what  seeds 
could  injustice,  intemperance  and  cowardice  spring, 
if  these  vices  had  not  a  basis  in  reason  .'* 

XXIX.  "  We  alluded  just  now  to  Medea  and 
Atreus,  characters  of  heroic  legend,  planning  their 
atrocious  crimes  'with  a  cool  calculation  of  profit  and 

72  loss.     But  what  of  the  frivolous  scenes  of  comedy  ?  Exampies 
do  not  these  show  the  reasoning  faculty  constantly  abusc  of 
emploved  ?    Does  not  that  younf^  nian  in  the  Eunuch  "  reason  fiora 
argue  subtly  enough  : 

What  shall  I  do  then  ?  .  .  . 

She  shut  me  out,  and  now  she  calls  me  back ; 

Well,  shall  I  go  ?    No,  not  if  she  implores  me. 

While  the  one  in  the  Young  Comrades  ^  does  not 
hesitate  to  employ  the  weapon  of  reason,  in  true 
Academic  style,  to  combat  received  opinion,  when 
he  says 

'Tis  sweet,  when  deep  in  love  and  deep  in  debt, 

To  have  a  niggardly  and  ungracious  sire, 

Who  loves  you  not  and  cares  not  for  your  weal — 

73  an  extraordinary  dictum  for  which  he  subjoins  some 
reasons  of  a  sort  : 

Thcn  either  you  may  cheat  him  of  a  rent, 

Or  forge  a  document  and  intercept 

A  debt  thafs  due  to  him,  or  send  your  page-boy 

To  trick  him  with  some  scare  ;  and  last  of  all, 

How  much  more  fun  it  is  to  squander  money 

Which  you  have  screwed  out  of  a  stingy  father ! 

And  he  proceeds  to  argue  that  a  kind  and  generous 
father  is  a  positive  inconvenience  to  a  son  in  love  : 

357 


CICERO 

qiiem  neque  quo  pacto  fallam  nec  quid  inde  auferam 
nec  quem  dolum  ad  eum  aut  machinam  commoliar 
scio  quicquam  :  ita  omnes  meos  dolos  fallacias 
praestrigias  praestrinxit  commoditas  patris. 

Quid  ergo  isti  doli,  quid  machinae,  quid  fallaciae 
praestrigiaeque  num  sine  ratione  esse  potuerunt  ?  O 
praeclarum  munus  deorum,  ut  Phormio  possit  dicere  : 

cedo  senem ;  iam  instructa  sunt  mi  in  corde  consilia  omnia  ! 
74  XXX.  "  Sed  exeamus  e  theatro,  veniamus  in  forum. 
Sessum  It  praetor.  Quid  ut  iudicetur  ?  Qui  tabu- 
larium  incenderit.  Quod  facinus  occultius  ?  at^ 
se  Q.  Sosius  splendidus  eques  Romanus  ex  agro 
Piceno  fecisse  confessus  est.  Qui  transscripserit 
tabulas  pubhcas.  Id  quoque  L.  Alenus  fecit,  cum 
chirographum  sex  primorum  imitatus  est  :  quid 
hoc  homine  sollertius  ?  Cognosce  ahas  quaestiones, 
auri  Tolossani,  coniurationis  lugurthinae  ;  repete 
superiora,  TubuU  de  pecunia  capta  ob  rem  iudican- 
dam,  posteriora,  de  incestu  rogatione  Peducaea, 
tum  haec  cotidiana,  sicae  veneni^  peculatus,  testa- 
mentorum  etiam,  lege  nova  quaestiones.  Inde  illa 
actio  *  ope  consihoque  tuo  furtum  aio  factum  esse,' 
inde  tot  iudicia  de  fide  mala,  tutelae,  mandati,  pro 
socio,  fiduciae,  rehqua  quae  ex  empto  aut  vendito  aut 
conducto  aut  locato  contra  fidem  fiunt,  inde  iudicium 

1  at  B  :  ad  ^,  id  Davies,  at  id  Schiitz. 
2  veneni  dett.  :  venena  A,  B. 

"  Toulouse  joined  the  Cimbri  in  their  revolt,  and  was 
sacked  by  Q.  Servilius  Caepio,  106  b.c.  ;  the  temples  contained 
large  stores  of  gold.  Caepio  was  most  severely  punished 
for  sacrilege  on  his  return  to  R,ome. 

358 


DE  NATURA  DEORUiM,  III.  xxix.— xxx. 

How  Vm  to  cheat  him,  what  to  levy  ofF  him, 
What  plot  to  plan  or  trick  to  play  upon  him, 
I  can't  imagine  :  all  my  tricks  and  dodges 
My  father's  generosity  has  out-tricked. 

Well  then,  how  can  those  plots  and  devices,  those 
dodges  and  tricks  have  come  into  existence  with- 
out  reasoning  ?  What  a  noble  gift  of  the  gods,  that 
enables  Phormio  to  say  : 

Produce  the  old  boy — my  plans  are  all  prepared  ! 

Ji  XXX.  "  But  let  us  quit  the  theatre  and  visit  the  law-  and  from 
courts.  The  praetor  is  about  to  take  his  seat.  What  court& ' 
is  the  trial  to  be  about  ?  To  fmd  out  M'ho  set  fire  to 
the  record  office,  How  couldyou  have  a  craftier  crime  ? 
yet  Quintus  Socius,  a  distinguished  Roman  knight, 
confessed  he  had  done  it.  To  find  out  who  tampered 
with  the  public  accounts.  Well,  this  again  was  done 
by  Lucius  Alenus,  M-hen  he  forged  the  handwriting 
of  the  six  senior  treasury  clerks  ;  what  could  be 
craftier  than  this  fellow  ?  Note  other  trials — the 
aifair  of  the  gold  from  Toulouse,"  Jugurtha's  con- 
spiracy  ;  go  back  to  an  earher  period,  and  take  the 
trial  of  Tubulus  for  giving  a  bribed  verdict,  or  to  a 
later  one,  and  take  the  trial  for  incest  on  Peducaeus's 
motion,  and  then  the  trials  under  the  new  law,  the 
cases  of  assassination,  poisoning,  embezzlement  and 
forgery  of  wills,  that  are  daily  occurrences  at  the 
present  time.  Reason  is  the  source  of  the  charge 
*  I  declare  that  with  your  aid  and  counsel  a  theft  was 
committed  ' ;  hence  spring  all  the  trials  for  breach  of 
trust  as  to  a  guardianship,  commission,  in  virtue  of 
partnership,trusteeship,and  allthe  othercases  arising 
frombreach  of  faith  inpurchase  or  sale  or  hire  or  lease; 
hence  procedure  on  the  public  behalf  in  a  private  suit 

359 


CICERO 

publicum  rei  privatae  lege  Plaetoria,  inde  everricu- 
lum  malitiarum  omnium  iudicium  de  dolo  malo,  quod 
C.  Aquillius  familiaris  noster  protulit,  quem  dolum 
idem  Aquillius  tum  teneri  putat  cum  aliud  sit  simu- 
76  latum  aliud  actum.  Hanc  igitur  tantam  a  dis  inmor- 
talibus  arbitramur  malorum  sementim  esse  factam  ? 
Si  enim  rationem  hominibus  di  dederunt,  malitiam 
dederunt ;  est  enim  malitia  versuta  et  fallax  ratio 
nocendi  ;  iidem  etiam  di  fraudem  dederunt,  facinus 
ceteraque,  quorum  nihil  nec  suscipi  sine  ratione  nec 
effici  potest.     Utinam  igitur,  ut  illa  anus  optat 

ne  in  nemore  Pelio  securibus 
caesae  accidissent  abiegnae  ad  terram  trabes, 

gic  istam  calliditatem  hominibus  di  ne  dedissent ! 
qua  perpauci  bene  utuntur,  qui  tamen  ipsi  saepe  a 
male  utentibus  opprimuntur,  innumerabiles  autem 
improbe  utuntur,  ut  donum  hoc  divinum  rationis  et 
consilii  ad  fraudem  hominibus,  non  ad  bonitatem 
impertitum  esse  videatur. 
76  XXXI.  "  Sed  urgetis  identidem  hominum  esse 
istam  culpam,  non  deorum  —  ut  si  medicus  gravitatem 
morbi,  gubernator  vim  tempestatis  accuset  ;  etsi  hi 
quidem  homuncuh,  sed  tamen  ridicuH  :  '  Quis  enim 
te  adhibuisset  '  dixerit  quispiam  *  si  ista  non  essent  ?  ' 
Contra  deum  hcet  disputare  hberius  :  '  In  hominum 
^itiis  ais  esse  culpam  :  eam  dedisses  hominibus  ratio- 

"  This  law  made  the  cheating  of  young  men  by  money- 
lenders  a  criminal  oifence,  conviction  carrying  ineligibility 
for  public  office. 

"  Probably  this  gave  action  for  forms  of  fraud  not  coming 
under  any  previous  formula. 

■=  The  opening  lines  of  Ennius's  Medea,  translated  from 
Euripides :  ei^'  ^cpeXe  .  .  .  /atjS'  iv  vdirat.(Ti  HrjXlov  ireaeiv  wore 
Tfxrjdelcra  ve6KT]. 

360 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxx.— xxxi. 

under  the  law  of  Plaetorius  '^ ;  hence  that  net  to  catch 
wrong-doing  of  all  sorts,  the  *  action  for  mahcious 
fraud  '  ^  promulgated  by  our  friend  Gaius  AquiUius,  a 
charge  of  fraud  that  AquilHus  hkewise  holds  to  be 
proved  when  a  man  has  pretended  to  do  one  thing 

75  and  has  done  another.  Do  we  then  really  think  that 
this  enormous  crop  of  evil  was  sown  by  the  immortal 
gods  ?  For  if  the  gods  gave  man  reason,  they  gave 
him  malice,  for  malice  is  the  crafty  and  covert  plan- 
ning  of  harm  ;  and  Ukewise  also  the  gods  gave  him 
trickery  and  crime  and  all  the  other  wickednesses, 
none  of  which  can  be  either  planned  or  executed 
without  reasoning.  *  If  only.'  as  the  old  nurse  prays 
in  the  tragedy, 

Pelion's  glades  had  never  seen 
The  axe  fell  to  the  earth  the  pine-tree  trunks," 

so  if  only  the  gods  had  never  given  to  man  that  cun- 
ning  which  you  speak  of !  Which  very  few  use  well, 
and  even  these  themselves  are  all  the  same  often 
crushed  by  those  who  use  it  badly  ;  whereas  count- 
less  numbers  use  it  wickedly,  and  make  it  seem  that 
this  divine  gift  of  reason  and  of  wisdom  was  imparted 
to  man  for  the  purpose  of  deception  and  not  of  honest 
deaUng. 

76  XXXI.  "  But  you  keep  insisting  that  mankind  and  Providence 
not  the  gods  are  to  blame  for  this.  That  is  as  if  a  foreseen'^ 
physician  should  plead  the  severity  of  the  disease,  or  thatman 

a  hehnsman  the  violence  of  the  storm.    Though  these  reason,  and 
are  mere  men — but  even  for  them  it  would  be  an  ^^!^^'^  °°^ 
absurd  plea  :    '  if  it  were  not  so,'  anybody  would  bestowed  it. 
rejoin,  *  who  would  have  employed  you  ?  '    But  a  god 
one  might  rebut  more  roundly  :    '  You  say  that  the 
fault  hes  in  men's  vices  ;    you  ought  to  have  given 
men  a  rational  faculty  of  such  a  nature  as  would  have 

361 


CICERO 

nem,  quae  vitia  culpamque  excluderet.'  Ubi  igitur 
locus  fuit  errori  deorum  ?  Nam  patrimonia  spe  bene 
tradendi  relinquimus,  qua  possumus  falli  ;  deus  falli 
qui  potuit  ?  An  ut  Sol  in  currum  cum  Phaethontem 
fiUum  sustuht,  aut  Neptunus  cum  Theseus  Hippo- 
lytum  perdidit,  cum  ter  optandi  a  Neptuno  patre 

77  habuisset  potestatem  ?  Poetarum  ista  sunt,  nos 
autem  philosophi  esse  volumus,  rerum  auctores,  non 
fabularum.  Atque  hi  tamen  ipsi  di  poetici  si  scissent 
perniciosa  fore  illa  fihis,  peccasse  in  beneficio  puta- 
rentur.  Ut^  si  verum  est  quod  Aristo  Chius  dicere 
solebat,  nocere  audientibus  philosophos  iis  qui  bene 
dicta  male  interpretarentur  (posse  enim  asotos  ex 
Aristippi,  acerbos  e  Zenonis  schola  exire),  prorsus, 
si  qui  audierunt  vitiosi  essent  discessuri  quod  per- 
verse  philosophorum  disputationem  interpretarentur, 
tacere  praestaret  philosophos^  quam  iis  qui  se  audis- 

78  sent  nocere :  sic,  si  homines  rationem  bono  consiho  a 

dis  immortaUbus  datam  in  fraudem  maUtiamque  con- 

vertunt,  non  dari  iUam  quam  dari  humano  generi 

meUus    fuit.     Ut,   si  medicus    sciat  eum  aegrotum 

qui  iussus  sit  vinum  sumere  meracius   sumpturum 

statimque  periturum,  magna  sit  in  culpa,  sic  vestra 

ista  providentia  reprehendenda ,  quae  r  ationem  dederit 

^  ut  Davies  :  et. 
'  philosophos  dett.  :  philosophis  A^  B. 

"  Poseidon  gave  his  son  Theseus,  King  of  Athens,  three 
wishes.  Theseus  wished  the  death  of  his  son  Hippolytus, 
falsely  accused  by  his  siep-mother  Phaedra  of  love  for  her. 
Poseidon  sent  a  sea-bull  that  scared  Hippolytus's  chariofc- 
horses,  and  he  was  killed. 
362 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxxi. 

precluded  vice  and  crime.'  What  room  therefore  was 
there  for  error  on  the  part  of  the  gods  ?  We  men 
bequeath  legacies  in  the  hope  of  bestowing  them 
beneficially,  a  hope  in  which  we  may  be  deceived  ; 
but  how  could  god  be  deceived  ?  As  the  Sun  was, 
when  he  gave  his  son  Phaethon  a  ride  in  his  chariot  ? 
or  Neptune,  when  his  bestowal  on  his  son  of  permis- 
sion  for  three  wishes  resulted  in  Theseus'  causing  the 

77  death  of  Hippolytus  °  ?  These  are  fables  of  the  poets, 
whereas  we  aim  at  being  philosophers,  who  set  down 
facts,  not  fictions.  And  all  the  same,  even  these  gods 
of  poetry  would  be  held  guilty  of  mistaken  kindness 
if  they  knew  that  their  gifts  would  bring  their  sons 
disaster.  Just  as,  if  a  favourite  saying  of  Aristo  of 
Chios  was  true,  that  philosopHers  are  harmful  to 
their  hearers  when  the  hearers  put  a  bad  interpreta- 
tion  on  doctrines  good  in  themselves  (for  he  allowed 
it  was  possible  to  leave  the  school  of  Aristippus  a 
profligate,  or  that  of  Zeno  cantankerous),  then 
clearly,  if  their  pupils  were  likely  to  go  away  de- 
praved  because  they  misinterpreted  the  philosophers' 
discourses,  it  would  be  better  for  the  philosophers 
to  keep  silence  than  to  do  harm  to  those  Mho  heard 

78  them  :  similarly,  if  men  abuse  the  faculty  of  reason, 
bestowed  on  them  ^\-ith  a  good  intention  by  the  im- 
mortal  gods,  by  employing  it  to  cheat  and  wTong 
their  fellows,  it  would  have  been  better  for  it  not 
to  be  bestowed  upon  the  human  race  than  to  be 
bestowed.  Just  as,  supposing  a  doctor  to  know  that  a 
patient  for  whom  he  prescribes  wine  \W11  be  certain 
to  drink  it  ^^lth  too  little  water  and  vriW  die  on  the 
spot,  that  doctor  would  be  greatly  to  blame,  so  your 
Stoic  pro^idence  is  to  be  censured  for  bestowing 
reason  upon  those  whom  it  knew  to  be  going  to  use 

S63 


CICERO 

iis  quos  scierit  ea  perverse  et  inprobe  usuros.  Nisi 
forte  dicitis  eam  nescisse.  Utinam  quidem  !  sed 
non  audebitis,  non  enim  ignoro  quanti  eius  nomen 
putetis. 

79  XXXII.  "  Sed  hic  quidem  locus  concludi  iam 
potest.  Nam  si  stultitia  consensu  omnium  philo- 
sophorum  maius  est  malum  quam  si  omnia  mala  et 
fortunae  et  corporis  ex  altera  parte  ponantur, 
sapientiam  autem  nemo  adsequitur,  in  summis  malis 
omnes  sumus  quibus  vos  optume  consultum  a  dis 
inmortalibus  dicitis.  Nam  ut  nihil  interest  utrum 
nemo  valeat  an  nemo  possit  valere,  sic  non  intellego 
quid  intersit  utrum  nemo  sit  sapiens  an  nemo  esse 
possit. 

"  Ac  nos  quidem  nimis  multa  de  re  apertissuma ; 
Telamo  autem  uno  versu  locum  totum  conficit  cur 
di  homines  neglegant  : 

nam  si  curent,  bene  bonis  sit,  maie  malis  ;    quod  nunc 
abest. 

Debebant  illi  quidem  omnis  bonos  efficere,  siquidem 

80  hominum  generi  consulebant  ;  sin  id  minus,  bonis 
quidem  certe  consulere  debebant.  Cur  igitur  duo 
Scipiones,  fortissimos  et  optimos  viros,  in  Hispania 
Poenus  oppressit  ?  cur  Maximus  extuHt  filium  con- 
sularem  ?  cur  Marcellum  Hannibal  interemit  ?  cur 
Paulum  Cannae  sustulerunt  ?  cur  Poenorum  cru- 
deUtati  Reguh  corpus  est  praebitum  ?  cur  Africanum 
domestici  parietes  non  texerunt  ?     Sed  haec  vetera 

*  From  Ennius's  Telamon :  the  hero  is  bewailing  the 
death  of  Ajax. 

^  See  ii.  14  note  e, 
364 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxxi.— xxxii. 

it  WTongly  and  evilly.  Unless  perhaps  you  say  that 
providence  did  not  know.  I  only  wish  you  would  ! 
but  you  \\\\\  not  dare  to,  for  I  am  well  aware  how 
liighly  you  esteem  its  name. 

79  XXXII.  "  But  this  topic  we  may  now  bring  to  an  Man'3iack 
end.    For  if  by  the  general  consent'of  all  philosophers  proves^Jh^e 
folly  is  a  greater  e^il  than  all  the  ills  of  fortune  and  of  indifference 
the  body  when  placed  in  the  scale  against  it,  and  if  |]o  the ' 
wisdom  on  the  other  hand  is  attained  by  nobody,  we,  "j.^jj''"^^^* 
for  whose  welfare  you  say  that  the  gods  have  cared  and  the 
most  fully,  are  really  in  the  depth  of  misfortune.  JJg^^P^^e^^ 
For  just  as  it  makes  no  difference  whether  no  one  is 

in  good  health  or  no  one  can  be  in  good  health,  so  I  do 
not  understand  what  difference  it  makes  whether 
no  one  is  ^\-ise  or  no  one  can  he  wise. 

"  However,  we  are  dweUing  too  long  on  a  point 
that  is  perfectly  clear.  Telamo  dispatches  the  whole 
topic  of  proving  that  the  gods  pay  no  heed  to  man 
in  a  single  verse  : 

For  if  they  cared  for  men,  good  men  would  prosper 
And  bad  men  come  to  grief ;  but  this  is  not  so.* 

Indeed  the  gods  ought  to  have  made  all  men  good, 

80  if  they  really  cared  for  the  human  race  ;  or  faihng 
that,  they  certainly  ought  at  all  events  to  have  cared 
for  the  good.  Why  then  were  the  two  Scipios,  the 
bravest  and  noblest  of  men,  utterly  defeated  by  the 
Carthaginians  in  Spain  ?  why  did  Maximus  bury 
his  son,  a  man  of  consular  rank  ?  why  did  Hannibal 
slay  Marcellus  ?  why  did  Cannae  prove  the  ruin 
of  Paulus  ?  why  was  the  person  of  Regulus  sur- 
rendered  to  the  cruelty  of  the  Carthaginians  ?  why 
was  not  Africanus  shielded  by  the  walls  of  his  home  *  ? 
But  these  and  numerous  other  instances  are  of  long 


CICERO 

et  alia  permulta ;  propiora  videamus.  Cur  avun- 
culus  meus,  vir  innocentissumus  idemque  doctissu- 
mus  P.  Rutilius,  in  exilio  est  ?  cur  sodalis  meus 
interfectus  domi  suae  Drusus  ?  cur  temperantiae 
prudentiaeque  specimen  ante  simulacrum  Vestae 
pontifex  maximus  est  Q.  Scaevola  trucidatus  ? 
cur  ante  etiam  tot  civitatis  principes  a  Cinna  inter- 
empti  ?  cur  omnium  perfidiosissimus  C.  Marius  Q. 
Catulum  praestantissuma  dignitate  virum  mori  potuit 

81  iubere  ?  Dies  deficiat  si  velim  enumerare^  quibus 
bonis  male  evenerit,nec  minus  si  commemorem  quibus 
improbis  optime.  Cur  enim  Marius  tam  feliciter 
septimum  consul  domi  suae  senex  est  mortuus  ?  cur 
omnium  crudelissimus  tam  diu  Cinna  regnavit  ?  At 
dedit  poenas.  XXXIII.  Prohiberi  melius  fuit  im- 
pedirique  ne  tot  summos  viros  interficeret  quam  ipsum 
aliquando  poenas  dare.  Summo  cruciatu  supplicio- 
que  Q.  Varius,  homo  importunissumus,  periit ;  si 
quia  Drusum  ferro  Metellum  veneno  sustulerat, 
illos  conservari  meUus  fuit  quam  poenas  sceleris 
Varium  pendere.  Duodequadraginta  annos  Dio- 
nysius  tyrannus  fuit  opulentissumae  et  beatissumae 

82  civitatis  ;  quam  multos  ante  hunc  in  ipso  Graeciae 
flore  Pisistratus !  *  At  Phalaris,  at  Apollodorus 
poenas  sustuHt.'  Multis  quidcm  ante  cruciatis  et 
necatis.  Et  praedones  multi  saepe  poenas  dant, 
nec    tamen    possumus    dicere    non    pluris    captivos 

*  enumerare  Ernesti  :  numerare. 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxxii.— xxxiii. 

ago  ;  let  iis  look  at  more  recent  cases.  Why  is  my 
uncle  Publius  Rutilius,  a  man  of  stainless  honour  and 
also  of  consummate  learning,  now  in  exile  ?  wliy 
was  my  comrade  Drusus  murdered  in  his  owti  home  ? 
why  was  that  pattern  of  high  principle  and  of  wisdom, 
the  chief  pontifF  Quintus  Scaevola,  assassinated  in 
front  of  the  statue  of  ^'esta  ?  why  before  that  were 
so  many  leading  citizens  also  made  away  ^\ith  by 
Cinna  ?  why  had  that  monster  of  treachery  Gaius 
Marius  the  power  to  order  the  death  of  that  noblest 

81  of  mankind,  Quintus  Catulus  ?  The  day  would  be 
too  short  if  I  desired  to  recount  the  good  men  visited 
by  misfortune  ;  and  equally  so  were  I  to  mention 
the  wicked  who  have  prospered  exceedingly.  For 
why  did  Marius  die  so  happily  in  his  own  home,  an 
old  man  and  consul  for  the  seventh  time  ?  why  did 
that  monster  of  cruelty  Cinna  lord  it  for  so  long  ? 
You  Mill  say  that  he  was  punished.  XXXIII.  It 
would  have  been  better  for  him  to  be  hindered  and 
prevented  from  murdering  so  many  eminent  men, 
than  finally  to  be  punished  in  his  turn.  That  bar- 
barous  creature  Quintus  Varius  was  executed  ^vith 
the  most  painful  torture  ;  if  this  was  for  stabbing 
Drusus  and  poisoning  Metellus,  it  would  have  been 
better  for  their  Hves  to  be  preserved  than  for  Varius 
to  be  punished  for  his  crime.  Dionysius  was  despot 
of  a  most  wealthy  and  prosperous  city  for  thirty-eight 

82  years  ;  and  before  him,  for  how  many  years  was 
Pisistratus  tyrant  of  Athens,  the  very  flower  of  Greece ! 
*  Ah  but  Phalaris  (you  say)  met  wiih  punishment,  and 
80  did  Apollodorus.'  Yes,  but  not  till  after  they  had 
tortured  and  killed  many  victims.  Many  brigands 
too  are  frequently  punished,  but  still  we  cannot  say 
that  the  captives  cruelly  murdered  do  not  outnumber 

367 


CICERO 

acerbe  quam  praedones  necatos.  Anaxarchum 
Democriteum  a  Cyprio  tyranno  excarnificatum 
accepimus,  Zenonem  Eleatem^  in  tormentis  necatum  ; 
quid  dicam  de  Socrate,  cuius  morti  inlacrimare^  soleo 
Platonem  legens  ?  Videsne  igitur  deorum  iudicio, 
si   vident  res   humanas,   discrimen   esse   sublatum  ? 

83  XXXIV.  Diogenes  quidem  Cynicus  dicere  solebat 
Harpalum,  qui  temporibus  illis  praedo  felix  habe- 
batur,  contra  deos  testimonium  dicere  quod  in  illa 
fortuna  tam  diu  viveret.  Dionysius,  de  quo  ante 
dixi,  cum  fanum  Proserpinae  Locris  expilavisset 
navigabat  Syracusas,  isque  cum  secundissumo  vento 
cursum  teneret,  ridens  '  Videtisne'  inquit,  *  amici, 
quam  bona  a  dis  inmortahbus  navigatio  sacrilegis 
detur  ?  '  Idque^  homo  acutus  cum  bene  planeque 
percepisset,  in  eadem  sententia  perseverabat  ;  qui 
cum  ad  Peloponnesum  classem  appulisset  et  in  fanum 
venisset  lovis  Olympii,  aureum  ei  detraxit  amiculum 
grandi  pondere,  quo  lovem  ornarat  e  manubiis 
Karthaginiensium  tyrannus  Gelo,  atque  in  eo  etiam 
cavillatus  est  aestate  grave  esse  aureum  amiculum, 
hieme  frigidum,  eique  laneum  pallium  iniecit,  cum 
id  esse*  ad  omne  anni  tempus*  diceret.  Idemque 
Aesculapii  Epidauri  barbam  auream  demi  iussit, 
neque  enim  convenire  barbatum  esse  fihum  cum  in 

84  omnibus  fanis  pater  inberbis  esset.  Etiam  mensas 
argenteas  de  omnibus  delubris  iussit  auferri,  in 
quibus  cum  more  veteris  Graeciae  inscriptum  esset 

*  Eleatem  Marsus  :  Elete  A,  Elee  B^  Eleae  dett. 

•  inlacrimare  det.  :  -ri  A^  B.         ^  idque  Lambinus  :  atque. 

*  esse  aptum  dett.  ^  tenipus  aptum  dett. 


*•  9C.  the  PJiaedo,  *  Apollo. 

368 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxxiii.— xxxiv. 

the  brigands  executed.  It  is  related  that  Anaxarchus 
the  disciple  of  Democritus  was  cruelly  butchered  by 
the  tyrant  of  Cyprus,  and  Zeno  of  Elea  tortured  to 
death.  Why  need  I  mention  Socrates,  whose  death 
when  I  read  Plato  ^  never  fails  to  move  me  to  tears  ? 
Do  you  see  then  that  the  verdict  of  the  gods,  if  they 
do  regard  men's  fortunes,  has  destroyed  all  distinc- 

83  tion  between  them  ?  XXXIV.  Indeed  Diogenes  the 
Cynic  used  to  say  that  Harpalus,  a  brigand  of  the  day 
who  passed  as  fortunate,  was  a  standing  witness 
against  the  gods,  because  he  Hved  and  prospered  as 
he  did  for  so  long.  Dionysius,  whom  I  mentioned 
before,  having  plundered  the  temple  of  Proserpine  at 
Locri,  was  saihng  back  to  Syracuse,  and  as  he  ran 
before  a  very  favourable  wind,  remarked  with  a 
smile,  *  See  you,  my  friends,  what  a  good  crossing  the 
immortal  gods  bestow  on  men  guilty  of  sacrilege  ?  * 
Ple  was  a  clever  fellow,  and  grasped  the  truth  so 
well  and  clearly  that  he  remained  in  the  same  behef 
continuously  ;  for  touching  with  his  fleet  on  the 
coast  of  the  Peloponnese  and  arriving  at  the  temple 
of  Olympian  Zeus,  he  stripped  him  of  his  gold  mantle, 
an  adornment  consisting  of  a  great  weight  of  metal, 
bestowed  upon  the  god  by  the  tyrant  Gelo  out  of  the 
spoils  of  the  Carthaginians,  and  actually  made  a  jest 
about  it,  saying  that  a  golden  mantle  was  oppressive 
in  summer  and  cold  in  winter,  and  he  threw  on  the 
god  a  woollen  cloak,  saying  it  was  for  every  season  of 
the  year.  He  also  gave  orders  for  the  removal  of  the 
golden  beard  of  Aesculapius  at  Epidaurus,  saying  it 
was  not  fitting  for  the  son  to  wear  a  beard  when  his 

84  father^  appeared  in  all  his  temples  beardless.  He  even 
ordered  the  silver  tables  to  be  carried  off  from  all  the 
shrines,  saying  that  as  they  bore  the  inscription  *  the 

369 


CICERO 

*  bonorum  deorum,'  uti  se  eorum  bonitate  velle 
dieebat.  Idem  Vietoriolas  aureas  et  pateras  coronas- 
que  quae  simulacrorum  porrectis  manibus  sustine- 
bantur  sine  dubitatione  toUebat,  eaque  se  accipere 
non  auferre  dicebat,  esse  enim  stultitiam  a  quibus 
bona  precaremur  ab  iis  porrigentibus  et  dantibus 
nolle  sumere.  Eundemque  ferunt  haec  quae  dixi  sub- 
lata  de  fanis  in  forum  protulisse  et  per  praeconem 
vendidisse,  exactaque  pecunia  edixisse  ut  quod  quis- 
que  a  sacris^  haberet  id  ante  diem  certam  in  suum 
quidque  fanum  referret ;  ita  ad  impietatem  in  deos 
in  homines  adiunxit  iniuriam.  XXXV.  Hunc  igitur 
nec  Olympius  luppiter  fuhnine  percussit  nec  Aescu- 
lapius  misero  diuturnoque  morbo  tabescentem  inter- 
emit,  atque  in  suo  lectulo  mortuus  in  j-  tjTannidis" 
rogum  inlatus  est,  eamque  potestatem  quara 
ipse  per  scelus  erat  nanctus  quasi  iustam  et  legiti- 
85  mam  hereditatis  loco  fiHo  tradidit.  Invita  in  hoc 
loco  versatur  oratio,  videtur  enim  auctoritatem  ad- 
ferre  peccandi  :  recte  \ideretur,  nisi  et  virtutis  et 
vitiorum  sine  ulla  divina  ratione  grave  ipsius  con- 
scientiae  pondus  esset.  Qua  sublata  iacent  omnia  ; 
ut  enim  nec  domus  nec  res  pubhca  ratione  quadara 
et  disciphna  dissignata  videatur  si  in  ea  nec  recte 
factis  praemia  extent  ulla  nec  supphcia  peccatis, 
sic  mundi  divina   [in  homines]^  moderatio  profecto 

^  a  sacris  :  sacri  B. 
'  tyranni  dis  B:  typanidis  A.  *  Bouhier, 


"  ?.«.,  kindness,  bounty,  bonte. 
^  The  text  is  probably  corrupt. 

370 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxxiv.— xxxv. 

property  of  the  good  gods,'  he  dcsircd  to  profit  by 
their  goodness.'*  Also  he  used  to  have  no  scruples 
in  removing  the  httle  gold  images  of  Mctory  and  the 
gold  cups  and  cro^vns  carried  in  the  outstretched 
hands  of  statues,  and  he  used  to  say  that  he  did  not 
take  them  but  accepted  them,  for  it  was  folly  to  pray 
to  certain  beings  for  benefits  and  then  when  they 
proffered  them  as  a  gift  to  refuse  to  receive  them. 
It  is  also  related  that  he  produced  in  the  market-place 
the  spoils  of  the  temples  which  I  have  mentioned  and 
sold  them  by  auction,  and  after  he  had  got  the  money 
issued  a  proclamation  that  anybody  who  possessed 
any  article  taken  from  a  holy  place  must  restore  that 
article  before  a  fixed  date  to  the  shrine  to  which  it  be- 
longed ;  thus  to  impiety  towards  the  gods  he  added 
injustice  towards  men.  XXXV.  Well,  Dionysius  was 
not  struck  dead  with  a  thunderbolt  by  Olympian 
Jupiter,  nor  did  Aesculapius  cause  him  to  waste 
away  and  perish  of  some  painful  and  Hngering  disease. 
He  died  in  his  bed  and  was  laid  upon  a  royal  ^  pyre, 
and  the  power  which  he  had  himself  secured  by  crime 
he  handed  on  as  an  inheritance  to  his  son  as  a  just  and 
85  lawful  sovereignty.  It  is  with  reluctance  that  I  en- 
large  upon  this  topic,  since  you  may  think  that  my 
discourse  lends  authority  to  sin  ;  and  you  would  be 
justified  in  so  thinking,  were  not  an  innocent  or  guilty 
conscience  so  powerful  a  force  in  itself,  without  the 
assumption  of  any  divine  design.  Destroy  this,  and 
everything  collapses  ;  for  just  as  a  household  or  a 
state  appears  to  lack  all  rational  system  and  order  if 
in  it  there  are  no  rewards  for  right  conduct  and  no 
punishments  for  transgression,  so  there  is  no  such 
thing  at  all  as  the  divine  governance  of  the  world  if 

371 


CICERO 

nulla  est  si  in  ea  discrimen  nullum  est  bonorum  et 
malorum. 

86  "  *  At  enim  minora  di  neglegunt,  neque  agellos  sin- 
gulorum  nec  viticulas  persequuntur,  nec  si  uredo  aut 
grando  quippiam  nocuit,  id  lovi  animadvertendum 
fuit  ;  ne  in  regnis  quidem  reges  omnia  minima 
curant  '  :  sic  enim  dicitis.  Quasi  ego  paulo  ante  de 
fundo  Formiano  P.  Rutilii  sim  questus,  non  de 
amissa  salute.  XXXVI.  Atque  hoc  quidem  omnes 
mortales  sic  habent,  externas  commoditates,  vineta 
segetes  oUveta,  ubertatem  frugum  et  fructuum,  om- 
nem  denique  commoditatem  prosperitatemque  vitae 
a  dis  se  habere  ;    virtutem  autem  nemo  umquam 

87  acceptam  deo  rettulit.  Nimirum  recte ;  propter 
virtutem  enim  iure  laudamur  et  in  virtute  recte 
gloriamur,  quod  non  contingeret,  si  id  donum  a  deo 
non  a  nobis  haberemus.  At  vero  aut  honoribus  aucti 
aut  re  familiari  aut  si  aliud  quippiam  nacti  sumus 
fortuiti  boni  aut  depuhnius  mah,  tum  dis  gratias  agi- 
mus,  tum  nihil  nostrae  laudi  adsumptum  arbitramur. 
Num  quis  quod  bonus  vir  esset  gratias  dis  egit  um- 
quam  ?  at  quod  dives,  quod  honoratus,  quod  incolu- 
mis.  lovemque  optumum  et  maxumum  ob  eas  res 
appellant,  non  quod  nos  iustos  temperatos  sapientes 
efficiat,  sed  quod  salvos  incolumis  opulentos  copiosos. 

88  Neque  Herculi  quisquam  decumam  vovit  umquam  si 
sapiens  factus  esset  —  quamquam  Pythagoras  cum  in 

•  §80. 

"*  A  tenth  part  of  spoils  of  war  and  of  treasure-trove  was 
devoted  to  Hercules  as  god  of  treasures. 

372 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxxv.— xxxvi. 

that  governance  makes  no  distinction  between  the 
good  and  the  wicked. 
8G      "  '  But,'  it  may  be  objected,  '  the  gods  disregard  Man'siife 
smaller  matters,  and  do  not  pay   attention  to  the  a?^not  "^^^ 
petty   farms   and   paltry   \-ines   of  individuals,   and  smaii 
any  trifling  damage  done  by  bhght  or  hail  cannot  Exwrai 
have  been  a  matter  for  the  notice  of  Jupiter  ;   even  s^^od^  umy 
kmgs  do  not  attend  to  all  tne  petty  attairs  m  their  these  Gcd 
kingdoms  ' :  this  is  how  you  argue.     As  if  forsooth  it  wh^er^pas' 
was  Pubhus  Rutihus's  estate  at  Formiae  about  which  viituea 
I  compkiined  a  httle  time  ago,°  and  not  his  loss  of  wTa'for"' 
all  security  !     XXXVI.  But  this  is  the  way  with  all  himseit 
mortals  :  their  external  goods,  their  \-ineyards,  corn- 
fields  and  ohve-yards,  with  their  abundant  harvests 
and  fruits,  and  in  short  all  the  comfort  and  prosperity 
of  their  Uves,  they  think  of  as  coming  to  them  from 
the  gods  ;  but  virtue  no  one  ever  imputed  to  a  god's 

87  bounty.  And  doubtless  with  good  reason  ;  for  our 
virtue  is  a  just  ground  for  others'  praise  and  a  right 
reason  for  our  own  pride,  and  this  would  not  be  so  if 
the  gift  of  virtue  came  to  us  from  a  god  and  not  from 
ourselves.  On  the  other  hand  when  we  achieve  some 
honour  or  some  accession  to  our  estate,  or  obtain  any 
other  of  the  goods  or  avoid  any  of  the  evils  of  fortune, 
it  is  then  that  we  render  thanks  to  the  gods,  and  do 
not  think  that  our  own  credit  has  been  enhanced. 
Did  anyone  ever  render  thanks  to  the  gods  because 
he  was  a  good  man  ?  No,  but  because  he  was  rich, 
honoured,  secure.  The  reason  why  men  give  to 
Jupiter  the  titles  of  Best  and  Greatest  is  not  that 
they  think  that  he  makes  us  just,  temperate  or  wisc, 

88  but  safe,  secure,  wealthy  and  opulent.  Nor  did  any- 
one  ever  vow  to  pay  a  tithe  to  Hercules  ^  if  he  becamc 
a  wise  man  !     It  is  true  there  is  a  story  that  Pytli- 

S73 


CICERO 

geometria  quiddam  novi  invenisset  Musis  bovem  im« 
molasse  dicitur  ;  sed  id  quidem  non  credo.  quoniam 
ille  ne  ApoUini  quidem  Delio  hostiam  immolare 
voluit  ne  aram  sanguine  aspergeret.  Ad  rem  autem 
ut  redeam,  iudicium  hoc  omnium  mortalium  est,  for- 
tunam  a  deo  petendam,  a  se  ipso  sumendam  esse 
sapientiam.  Quamvis  Ucet  Menti  delubra  et  Virtuti 
et  Fidei^  consecremus,  tamen  haec  in  nobis  ipsis 
sita  \ddemus  ;  spei  salutis  opis  victoriae  facultas  a 
dis  expetenda  est.  Inproborum  igitur  prosperitates 
secundaeque  res  redarguunt,  ut  Diogenes  dicebat, 
89  vim  omnem  deorum  ac  potestatem.  XXXVII.  '  At 
non  numquam  bonos  exitus  habent  boni.'  Eos 
quidem  arripimus  attribuimusque  sine  uUa  ratione 
dis  inmortalibus.  At  Diagoras  cum  Samothracam 
venisset,  aOeos  ille  qui  dicitur,  atque  ei  quidam 
amicus  '  Tu,  qui  deos  putas  humana  neglegere, 
nonne  animadvertis  ex  tot  tabulis  pictis  quam  multi 
votis  vim  tempestatis  effugerint  in  portumque  salvi 
pervenerint  ?  '  *  Ita  fit  '  inquit,  *  illi  enim  nusquam 
picti  sunt  qui  naufragia  fecerunt  in  marique  perie- 
runt.'  Idemque,  cum  ei  naviganti  vectores  adversa 
tempestate  timidi  et  perterriti  dicerent  non  iniuria 
sibi  illud  accidere  qui  illum  in  eandem  navem  recepis- 
sent,  ostendit  eis  in  eodem  cursu  muUas  aUas  labo- 
rantis  quaesivitque  num  etiam  in  iis  navibus  Dia- 
goram  vehi  crederent.     Sic  enim  res  se  habet  ut  ad 

1  Fidei  secl.  <et  Spei>  {del.  in/ra  spei)  Pearce. 

"  "  Hope  "  shonld  probably  be  transferred  to  the  preceding 
Ust,  after  "  Failh,"  c/.  §  61. 
374 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxxvi.— xxxvii. 

agoras  used  to  sacrifice  an  ox  to  the  Muses  when  he 
had  made  a  new  discovery  in  gcometry  !  but  I  don't 
beUeve  it,  since  Pythagoras  refused  even  to  sacrifice 
a  victim  to  Apollo  of  Delos,  for  fear  of  sprinkHng  the 
altar  with  blood.  However,  to  return  to  my  point,  it 
is  the  considered  belief  of  all  mankind  that  they  must 
pray  to  god  for  fortune  but  obtain  wisdom  for  them- 
selves.  Let  us  dedicate  temples  as  we  will  to  Intel- 
lect,  Virtue  and  Faith,  yet  we  perceive  that  these 
things  are  within  ourselves  ;  hope,'*  safety,  wealth, 
victory  are  blessings  which  we  must  seek  from  the 
gods.  Accordingly  the  prosperity  and  good  fortune 
of  the  wicked,  as  Diogenes  used  to  say,  disprove  the 
9  might  and  power  of  the  gods  entirely.  XXXVII.  is^notf 
*  But  sometimes  good  men  come  to  good  ends.'  Yes,  re^^rded 
and  we  seize  upon  these  cases  and  impute  them  A\1th  and  vice  is 
no  reason  to  the  immortal  gods.  Diagoras,  named  by^iJJn'^ 
the  Atheist,  once  came  to  Samothrace,  and  a  certain  ifataU. 
friend  said  to  him,  *  You  who  think  that  the  gods  dis- 
regard  men's  affairs,  do  you  not  remark  all  the  votive 
pictures  that  prove  how  many  persons  have  escaped 
the  violence  of  the  storm,  and  come  safe  to  port, 
by  dint  of  vows  to  the  gods  ?  '  *  That  is  so,'  replied 
Diagoras  ;  '  it  is  because  there  are  nowhere  any 
pictures  of  those  who  have  been  shipwi-ecked  and 
drowned  at  sea.'  On  another  voyage  he  encountered 
a  storm  which  threw  the  crew  of  the  vessel  into  a 
panic,  and  in  their  terror  they  told  him  that  they  had 
brought  it  on  themselves  by  having  taken  him  on 
board  their  ship.  He  pointed  out  to  them  a  number 
of  other  vessels  making  heavy  weather  on  the  same 
course,  and  inquired  whether  they  supposed  that 
those  ships  also  had  a  Diagoras  on  board.  The  fact 
really  is  that  your  character  and  past  life  make  no 

375 


CICERO 

prosperam  adversamve  fortunam  qualis  sis  aut  quem 
ad  modum  ^ixeris  nihil  intersit. 

00  "  '  Non  animadvertunt '  inquit  '  omnia  di,  ne  reges 
quidem.'  Quid  est  simile  ?  Reges  enim  si  scientes 
praetermittunt.magna  culpa  est ;  XXXVIII.  at  deone 
excusatio  quidem  est  inscientiae.  Quem  vos  praeclare 
defenditis,  cum  dicitis  eam  vim  deorum  esse  ut  etiamsi 
quis  morte  poenas  sceleris  effugerit  expetantur  eae 
poenae  a  liberis  a  nepotibus  a  posteris.  O  miram 
aequitatem  deorum  :  ferretne  civitas  ulla  latorem 
istius  modi  legis,  ut  condemnaretur  filius  aut  nepos 
si  pater  aut  avus  deliquisset  ? 

quinam  Tantalidarum  internecioni  modus 
paretur,  aut  quaenam  umquam  ob  mortem  Myrtili 
poenis  luendis  dabitur  satias  supplici  ? 

01  Utrum  poetae  Stoicos  depravarint  an  Stoici  poetis 
dederint  auctoritatem  non  facile  dixerim  ;  portenta 
enim  ab  utrisque  et  flagitia  dicuntur.  Neque  enim 
quem  Hipponactis  iambus  laeserat  aut  qui  erat  Archi- 
lochi  versu  volneratus,  a  deo  inmissum  dolorem,  non 
conceptum  a  se  ipso  continebat,  nec  cum  Aegisthi 
hbidinem  aut  cum  Paridis  videmus  a  deo  causam 
requirimus,  cum  culpae  paene  vocem  audiamus,  nec 
ego  multorum  aegrorum  salutem  non  ab  Hippocrate 
potius  quam  ab  Aesculapio  datam  iudico,  nec  Lace- 
daemoniorum  disciplinam  dicam  umquam  ab  ApoUine 
potius  Spartae  quam  a  Lycurgo  datam.  Critolaus 
inquam  evertit  Corinthum,  Karthaginem  Hasdrubal : 


"  IW  Attius,  probably  from  Thyestes. 

*  \  iz.  of  the  death  of  Agamemnon,  and  the  fall  of  Troy. 

'  Ccneral  of  the  Achaean  League,  defeated  by  the  Romans 
147  B.c. ;  next  year  Corinth  was  takcn  and  destroyed. 
876 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxxvii.— xxxviii. 

differeiice  whatever  as  regards  vour  fortune  good  or 
bad. 

90  "  *  The  gods  do  not  take  notice  of  everything,  any 
more  than  do  human  rulers,'  says  our  friend.  Where 
is  the  parallel  ?  If  human  rulers  knowinoly  overlook 
a  fault  they  are  greatly  to  blame  ;  XXX\'III.  but  as 
for  god,  he  cannot  even  offer  the  excuse  of  ignorance. 
And  how  remarkably  you  champion  his  cause,  when 
you  declare  that  the  divine  power  is  such  that  even  if 
a  person  has  escaped  punishment  by  dyine',  the  punish- 
ment  is  visited  on  his  children  and  grandchildren  and 
their  descendants  !  What  a  remarkable  instance  of 
the  divine  justice  !  Would  any  state  tolerate  a  law- 
giver  who  should  enact  that  a  son  or  grandson  was 
to  be  sentenced  for  the  transgression  of  a  father  or 
grandfather  ? 

Where  shall  the  Tantalids'  vendetta  end  ? 
What  penalty  for  Myrtilus's  murder 
Shall  ever  glut  the  appetite  of  vengeance  ?  * 

91  Whether  the  Stoic  philosophers  were  led  astray  by 
the  poets,  or  the  poets  rehed  on  the  authority  of  the 
Stoics,  I  should  find  it  hard  to  say  ;  for  both  tell  some 
monstrous  and  outrageous  tales.  For  the  victim 
lashed  by  the  lampoons  of  Hipponax  or  the  verses  of 
Archilochus  nursed  a  wound  not  inflicted  by  a  god 
but  received  from  himself ;  and  we  do  not  look  for 
any  heaven-sent  cause  ^  when  we  view  the  Hcentious- 
ness  of  Aegisthus  or  of  Paris,  since  their  guilt  almost 
cries  aloud  in  our  ears  ;  and  the  bestowal  of  health 
upon  many  sick  persons  I  ascribe  to  Hippocrates 
rather  than  to  Aesculapius  ;  and  I  will  never  allow 
that  Sparta  received  the  Lacedaemonian  rule  of  Hfe 
from  Apollo  rather  than  from  Lycurgus.  It  was 
Critolaus,*'    I    aver,    who    overthrew    Corinth,    and 

877 


CICERO 

hi  duo  illos  oculos  orae  maritumae  efibderunt,  non 
iratus  aliqui  quem  omnino  irasci  posse  negatis,  deus. 

92  At  subvenire  certe  potuit  et  conservare  urbis  tantas 
atque  talis  ;  XXXIX.  vos  enim  ipsi  dicere  soletis  nihil 
esse  quod  deus  efficere  non  possit,  et  quidem  sine 
labore  ullo  ;  ut  enim  hominum  membra  nulla  con- 
tentione  mente  ipsa  ac  voluntate  moveantur,  sic 
numine  deorum  omnia  fingi  moveri  mutarique  posse. 
Neque  id  dicitis  superstitiose  atque  aniUter  sed  physica 
constantique  ratione  ;  materiam  enim  rerum,  ex  qua 
et  in  qua  onmia  sint,  totam  esse  flexibilem  et  com- 
mutabilem,  ut  nihil  sit  quod  non  ex  ea  quam^is 
subito  fingi  convertique  possit ;  eius  autem  universae 
fictricem  et  moderatricem  di\inam  esse  providentiam ; 
hanc  igitur,  quocumque  se  moveat,  efficere  posse 
quicquid  veUt.  Itaque  aut  nescit  quid  possit,  aut 
neglegit  res  himaanas,   aut  quid  sit  optimum  non 

93  potest  iudicare.  *  Non  curat  singulos  homines.' 
Non  mirum  :  ne  civitates  quidem.  Non  eas^  }  Ne 
nationes  quidem  et  gentes.  Quodsi  has  etiam  con- 
temnet,  quid  mirum  est  omne  ab  ea  genus  humanum 
esse  contemptum  ?  Sed  quo  modo  iidem  dicitis  non 
omnia  deos  persequi,  iidem  voltis  a  dis  inmortaUbus 
hominibus  dispertiri  ac  dividi  somnia  ?  idcirco  haec 
tecum  quia  vestra  est  de  somniorum  veritate  sen- 
tentia.      Atque    iidem    etiam    vota    suscipi    dicitis 

*  non  <modo/  eas  Miiller, 
378 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxxviii.— xxxix. 

Hasdrubal  Carthage  :  those  two  glories  of  the  sea- 
coast  were  extinguished  by  these  mortals,  not  by  some 
angry  god — who  according  to  your  school  is  entirely 

92  incapable  of  anger.  But  at  all  events  a  god  could  have 
come  to  the  aid  of  those  great  and  splendid  cities  and 
havepreservedthem — XXXIX.  foryouyourselvesare  God,  if 
fond  of  saying  that  there  is  notliing  that  a  god  cannot  o"*ifjfg^^'* 
accompUsh,   and  that  ^^dthout  any  toil  ;    as  man's  mightstin 
Hmbs  are  effortlessly  moved  merely  by  his  mind  and  thrgood 
Mill,  so,  as  you  say,  the  sods'  power  can  mould  and  if°ot. 

j      ij.  n^-i.-  XT        J  4-1-  individuals, 

move  and  alter  all  thmgs.     JNor  do  you  say  this  as  then 
some  superstitious  fable  or  old  wives'  tale,  but  you  jiations,  or 
give  a  scientific  and  systematic  account  of  it :    you  at  large : 
allege  that  matter,  which  constitutes  and  contains  to  be^[evr^ 
all  things,  is  in  its  entirety  flexible  and  subject  toindivina- 
change,   so   that  there   is   nothing   that   cannot   bcyjurfjie 
moulded  and  transmuted  out  of  it  however  suddenly,  godshave 
but  the   moulder  and  manipulator  of  this   univer-  spare. 
sal  substance   is  divine   providence,   and   therefore 
providence,  w^hithersoever  it  moves,  is  able  to  perform 
whatever  it  will.    Accordingly  either  providence  does 
not   know  its  own  powers,  or  it   does   not    regard 
human  affairs,  or   it  lacks  power  of  judgement  to 

93  discern  what  is  the  best.  *  It  does  not  care  for  in- 
dividuals.'  This  is  no  wonder  ;  no  more  does  it  care 
for  cities.  Not  for  these  ?  Not  for  tribes  or  nations 
either.  And  if  it  shall  appear  that  it  despises  even 
nations,  what  wonder  is  it  that  it  has  scorned  the 
entire  human  race  ?  But  how  can  you  both  maintain 
that  the  gods  do  not  pay  attention  to  everything  and 
also  believe  that  dreams  are  distributed  and  doled  out 
to  men  by  the  immortal  gods  ?  I  argue  this  with  you 
because  the  beHef  in  the  truth  of  dreams  is  a  tenet 
of  your  school.    And  do  you  also  say  that  it  is  proper 

379 


> 


CICERO 

oportere  ?  Nempe  singuli  vovent :  audit  igitur  inens 
divina  etiam  de  singulis  ;  videtis  ergo  non  esse  eam 
tam  occupatam  quam  putabatis  ?  Fac  esse  disten- 
tam,  caelum  versantem  terram  tuentem  maria 
moderantem  :  cur  tam  multos  deos  nihil  agere  et 
cessare  patitur  ?  cur  non  rebus  humanis  aliquos 
otiosos  deos  praeficit  qui  a  te,  Balbe,  innumerabiles 
explicati  sunt  ? 

"  Haec  fere  dicere  habui  de  natura  deorum,  non 
ut  eam  tollerem  sed  ut  intellegeretis  quam  esset 
obscura  et  quam  difficilis  expHcatus  haberet." 

94  XL.  Quae  cum  dixisset,  Cotta  finem.  Lucihus 
autem  "  Vehementius  "  inquit,  "  Cotta,  tu  quidem 
invectus  es  in  eam  Stoicorum  rationem  quae  de 
providentia  deorum  ab  iUis  sanctissume  et  provi- 
dentissume  constituta  est.  Sed  quoniam  adves- 
perascit,  dabis  nobis  diem  ahquem  ut  contra  ista 
dicamus.  Est  enim  mihi  tecum  pro  aris  et  focis  cer- 
tamen  et  pro  deorum  temphs  atque  delubris  proque 
urbis  muris,  quos  vos  pontifices  sanctos  esse  dicitis 
dihgentiusque  urbem  rehgione  quam  ipsis  moenibus 
cingitis  ;  quae  deseri  a  me,  dum  quidem  spirare 
potero,  nefas  iudico." 

95  Tum  Cotta :  "  Ego  vero  et  opto  redargui  me, 
Balbe,  et  ea  quae  disputavi  disserere  malui  quam 
iudicare,  et  facile  me  a  te  vinci  posse  certo  scio." 


380 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xxxix.— xl. 

for  men  to  take  vows  upon  themselves  ?  Well,  })ut 
vuAS  are  made  by  individuals  ;  therefore  the  divine 
mind  gives  a  hearing  even  to  the  concerns  of  in- 
dividuals  ;  do  you  see  therefore  that  it  is  not  so 
engrossed  in  business  as  you  thought  ?  Grant  that  it 
is  distracted  between  moving  the  heavens  and  watch- 
ing  the  earth  and  controUing  the  seas  :  why  does  it 
sutfer  so  many  gods  to  be  idle  and  keep  hoHday  ? 
why  does  it  not  appoint  some  of  the  leisured  gods 
w^hose  countless  numbers  you  expounded,  Balbus,  to 
superintend  human  affairs  ? 

"  This  more  or  less  is  what  I  have  to  say  about  the 
nature  of  the  gods  ;  it  is  not  my  design  to  disprove  it, 
but  to  bring  you  to  understand  how  obscure  it  is  and 
how  difficult  to  explain." 

94  XL.  So  saying,  Cotta  ended.    But  Lucihus  said  :  Conciusion. 
"  You  have  indeed  made  a  slashing  attack  upon  the 

most  reverently  and  wisely  constructed  Stoic  doc- 
trine  of  the  divine  providence.  But  as  evening  is 
now  approaching,  you  will  assign  us  a  day  on  which  to 
make  our  answer  to  your  views.  For  I  have  to  fight 
against  you  on  behalf  of  our  altars  and  hearths,  of  the 
temples  and  shrines  of  the  gods,  and  of  the  city- 
walls,  which  you  as  pontiffs  declare  to  be  sacred  and 
are  more  careful  to  hedge  the  city  round  witli 
religious  ceremonies  than  even  with  fortifications  ; 
and  my  conscience  forbids  me  to  abandon  their  cause 
so  long  as  I  yet  can  breathe." 

95  "  I  on  my  side,"  repUed  Cotta,  "  only  desire  to  be 
refuted.  My  purpose  was  rather  to  discuss  the  doc- 
trines  I  have  expounded  than  to  pronounce  judge- 
ment  upon  them,  and  I  am  confident  that  you  can 
easily  defeat  me." 

o  381 


CICERO 

"  Quippe "  inquit  Velleius  "  qui  etiam  somnia 
putet  ad  nos  mitti  ab  love,  quae  ipsa  tamen  tam 
levia  non  sunt  quam  est  Stoicorum  de  natura  deorum 
oratio." 

Haec  cum  essent  dicta,  ita  discessimus  ut  Velleio 
Cottae  disputatio  verior,  mihi  Balbi  ad  veritatis 
similitudinem  videretur  esse  propensior. 


382 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  III.  xl. 

"  Oh,  no  doubt,"  interposed  Velleius  ;  "  why,  he 
thinks  that  even  our  dreams  are  sent  to  us  by  Jupiter 
— though  dreams  themselves  are  not  so  unsubstantial 
as  a  Stoic  disquisition  on  the  nature  of  the  gods." 

Here  the  conversation  ended,  and  \ve  parted, 
Velleius  thinking  Cotta's  discourse  to  be  the  truer, 
while  I  felt  that  that  of  Balbus  approximated  more 
nearly  to  a  semblance  of  the  truth. 


SSS 


FRAGMENTA 

Ex  LiBRO  DE  Natura  Deorum  tertio 

1.  Lactarit.  Inst.  div.  ii.  3.  2  Intellegebat  Cicero 
falsa  esse  quae   homines   adorarent.     Nam  cum  multa 

dixisset  quae  ad  eversionem  religionum  valerent,  ait  tamen 
non  esse  illa  vulgo  disputanda,  ne  susceptas  publice 
religiones  disputatio  talis  exstinguat. 

2.  Ih.  ii.  8.  10  Cicero  de  natura  deorum  disputans  sic 
ait :  Primum  igitur  non  est  probabile  eam  materiam 
rerum  unde  orta  sunt  omnia  esse  divina  providentia 
effectam,  sed  habere  et  habuisse  vim  et  naturam 
suam.  Ut  igitur  faber  cum  quid  aedificaturus  est 
non  ipse  facit  materiam  sed  ea  utitur  quae  sit  parata, 
fictorque  item  cera,  sic  isti  providentiae  di\1nae 
materiam  praesto  esse  oportuit  non  quam  ipsa^  faceret 
sed  quam  haberet  paratam.  Quodsi  non  est  a  deo 
materia  facta,  ne  terra  quidem  et  aqua  et  aer  et 
ignis  a  deo  factus  est. 

3.  Maii  veit.  interpr.  Virg.  p.  45  ed.  Med.  apud 
Ciceronem  de  natura  deorum  LT,  uhi  de  Cleomene 
Lacedaemonio  .  .   . 

4.  Diomedes  i.  p.  313.  10  Keil.  Cicero  de  deorum 
natura  tertio  :  homines  omnibus  bestiis  antecedunt. 

^  ipsa  edd.  :  ipse  mss. 

*  This  and  the  three  following  fragments  Plasberg  inserts 
in  Book  III.  §  65. 
384 


FRAGMENTS 

Fragments  of  Book  III 

1.°  Lactantius,  Divine  Institutions  ii.  32.  Cicero  rvas 
aware  that  the  objects  of  mois  worship  werefalse.  For 
after  saying  a  numher  of  things  tending  to  suhvert 
religion,  he  adds  nevertheless  that  these  matters  ought 
not  to  be  discussed  in  pubhc,  lest  such  discussion 
destroy  the  estabhshed  rehgion  of  the  nation. 

2.  Ih.  ii.  8.  10.  Cicero  in  discussing  the  nature  of  the 
gods  says  thus  :  First  therefore  it  is  not  probable  that 
the  material  substance  from  which  all  things  are 
derived  was  created  by  divine  providence,  but  that 
it  has  and  has  had  a  force  and  nature  of  its  own.  As 
therefore  the  carpenter  when  about  to  build  a  house 
does  not  himself  make  timber  but  employs  that  which 
has  been  prepared,  and  the  same  with  the  modeller 
and  his  wax,  so  your  divine  providence  ought  to  have 
been  supphed  with  matter  not  made  by  itself  but 
given  to  it  ready-made.  But  if  matter  was  not  made 
by  god,  earth,  water,  air  and  fire  also  were  not  made 
by  god. 

3.  Maius'  Ancient  Interpreters  of  Virgil,  p.  45,  ed. 
Milan.  In  Cicero's  de  Natura  Deorum  hk.  III.,  where 
5j3eaA-/"«g  o/Cleomenes  of  Sparta  .  .  . 

4.  Diomedes  i.  p.  313.  10  Keil.  Cicero  de  Natura 
Dcorum  hk.  III     Men  surpass  all  the  lower  animals. 

385 


CICERO 


Ex    LlBRIS    INCERTIS 

5.  Serv.  ad  Verg.  Aen.  iii.  284  Tullius  in  libro  de 
naiura  deorum  tria  milia  annorum  dixit  magnum 
annum  tenere. 

6.  Serv.  ad  Verg.  Aen.  iii.  600  spirabile  .  .  .  est 
sermo  Cicercnis,  quanquam  ille  spiritabile  dixerit  in 
libris  de  deorum  natura. 

7.  Serv.  ad  Verg.  Aen.  vi.  894  Per  portam  corneam 
oculi  significantur,  qui  et  cornei  sunt  et  duriores  ceteris 
membris,  nam  frigus  non  sentiunt  sicut  etiam  Cicero 
dixit  in  libris  de  natura  deorum. 

"  See  ii.  51  f.,  where,  however,  the  length  of  the  Great 
Year  is  stated  to  be  uncertain.  In  Hortensius,  fr.  26,  Cicero 
gave  it  as  12954  years. 

^  One  Ms.  of  Servius  has  spiritale,  which   is  probably 


386 


DE  NATURA  DEORUM,  fraqments 


Fragments  of  uncertain  Origin 

5.  Servius  on  Virgil  Aen.  iii.  284.  Tully  in  his  book 
on  the  nature  of  the  gods  said  that  the  Great  Year  con- 
tains  three  thousand  years.** 

6.  Id.  on  Aen.  iii.  600.  *  Spirabile  '  .  .  .  is  in  the 
style  of  Cicero,  although  he  said  '  spiritabile  '  ^  in  his 
books  on  the  nature  of  the  gods. 

7.  Id.  on  Aen.  vi.  894.  By  *  the  gate  of  horn  '  the 
eyes  are  meant,  which  are  boih  horny  and  harder  than 
the  other  parts  of  the  body,  for  they  do  not  feel  cold,  as 
Cicero  also  said  in  his  books  on  the  nature  of  the  gods.'^ 

correct.  In  N.B,  ii.  18  we  find  spiritalem,  with  a  less  well 
attested  variant  spiritahilem,  presumably  a  mere  error.  The 
usual  form  is  spiritualis. 

'^  There  is  nothing  hke  this  about  the  eyes  in  Cicero, 
tliough  in  ii.  144  he  says  "  the  ears  have  hard  and  so  to  speak 
horny  entrances." 


387 


INDEX   10    DE   NATURA   DEORUM 


Absyrtus  (brother  of  Medea,  killed 
by  her),  iii.  48 

Academica,  Cicero's,  L  11 

Academy,  non-dogmatic,  1.  1-14; 
doctrine  of  epodic,  i.  11  ;  of  prob- 
ability,  i.  12 ;  rhetoric  of,  ii. 
16S 

Accius  (Roman  tragic  author,  170- 
?100  B.c),  quoted,  li.  89  ;  iii.  41, 
68,  90 

accoramodare  {(rvvoi.Keiovv),  i.  41, 
104  ;  ii.  45,  139 

Achcron  (river  in  Hades),  iii.  43 

Achilles,  worship  of,  iii.  45 

adaptation  of  animals  to  environ- 
ment,  ii.  121  ff.,  for  propagation 
of  species,  ii.  128  ff.,  for  use  of 
man,  ii.  158  ff. ;  of  man's  struc- 
ture,  ii.  134  ff. ;  of  nature  for 
use  of  man,  ii.  130  ff.,  154  ff. 

Adonis,  iii.  59 

Aegialeus  (  =  Absyrtu8),  liL  48 

Aegisthus,  iii.  91 

aerfuahilis  tributio.  aequilibriias 
(io-ovo/xia),  i.  50,  109 

Ae.sculapii,  three,  iii.  57 

Aesculapius,  human  benefactor 
deified,  ii.  62 ;  iii.  39,  45,  91 ;  Epi- 
daurian,  his  gold  beavd,  iii.  &3 

aether,  a  foreign  word,  ii.  91,  101  ; 
divine,  i.  36;  =Jove,  ii.  65; 
source  of  soul  and  life,  ii.  18,  39 
ff.  ;  fiery  heat,  i.  33,  37 ;  ii.  41, 
53;  holds  world  togfther,  ii.  101, 
115  ;  inhabited,  ii.  43 

Aether,  father  of  Caelus,  iiL  44; 
father  of  Jove,  iii.  53  t 

Africanus.     See  Scipio 

air,  =Juno,  ii.  66;  propertios  of,  i. 
40;  iL17,  26  f.,  42,  83,  101,  117; 
iii.  30 

388 


Alabanda   (city   in    Caria,    nampd 

from  hero  Alabandus),  iii.  39,  60 
Albucius  (praetor  in  Sardinia  105 

B.C.,   condemned  de    repefundif', 

retired  to  Athens  and  Epicurean 

philosophy),  L  93 
Alcaeus     (Greek     lyric     poet    of 

Mitylene,  fl.  600  B.C.),  quoted  in 

Latin,  i.  79 
Alcamenes  (Athenian   sculptor,  Jl. 

441:— 400  B.C.,  pupil  of  Pheidia.'-), 

L  83 
Alcmaeo  (philosopher    of  Crotona 

in  Italy,  j-oucger  contempoi-ary 

of  Pj'thagoras,  end  of  6ih  cent. 

B.c),  L  27 
Alco,  one  of  the  Dioscuri,  iii.  53 
Alexander  the  Great,  ii.  09 
allegory,  Stoic  use  of,  i.  36  f.,  41 ; 

ii.  62  fl".  ;  iii.  62  ff. 
Almo  (a    small    tributary  of   the 

Tiber),  iii.  52 
alphabet,  the  Latin,  ii.  93 
Amor,  iii.  44 
Amphiaraus,  a  legendary  augur,  iL 

7  ;  iii.  49 
Anactes  ('  Kings '),  iii.  53 
Anaxagoras     (lonian    philosopher 

500-428  B.C.,  teacher  of  Pericles 

and  Euripides),  i.  26 
Anaxarchus     (a     philosopher     of 

Abdera,  accompanied  Alexander 

into  Asia;   incurred  the  hatred 

of  Nicocreon,  king  of  Salamis  in 

Cypras,    by    his    free   speakinp, 

and     pounded     to    death     in    a 

mortar),  iii.  83 
Anaximander  (of  Miletus,  610-547 

B  c),  L  25 
Anaxinienes  (of  Miletus,  /l.  end  of 

6th  cent.  B.C.),  i.  26 


INDEX  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 


i,*oinial  life,  wonders  of,  ii.  121  fT. 
AnniLS  magnu^f,  ii.  51 
Anteros,  iii.  60 
^ithropomorphism,  1.  46  ff.,  71  ff., 

102 
Antiope,  iii.  54 
Antisthenes    (pupil    of   Socrates, 

founder  of  Cynic  school),  i.  32 
Aoede,  iii.  54 
Apis,  i.  82 
Apollo  (meaning  of  name),  ii.  68 ; 

iii.  55,  57,  8S,  Pl 
ApoUodorus    (minor    Stoic    philo- 

sopher),  i.  93 
Apollodorus    (tyrant    of    Cassan- 

dria,  formerly  Potidaea,   c.   280 

B.c,  overthrown  by    Antio'ouus 

Gonatas),  iii.  82 
Aquillius  (C.  Gallus,  praetor  with 

Cicero  6t3  b.c),  iii.  74 
Aratus,  ii.  104  ff.  (see  note),  159 
Arcesilas  (c.   315-240  b.c,  founder 

of  second  Academy),  i.  11,  70 
Arche,  iii.  54 
Archilochus    (of     Paros,    JL     700 

B.C.     invented    iambic    metre ; 

lampooned  Lycambes  for  break- 

ing  his  promise  to  give  h"m  a 

daughter  in  marriage ;    she  and 

her  sisters  hanged  themselves  for 

shame),  iii.  91 
Archiraedes    (raathematician    and 

astronomer  of  Syracuse,  2s7-212 

B.c.  :  his  orrery  brought  to  Rome 

by  MarcellusX  ii.  88 
Arctoe,  ii.  105 
Arctophyl.ie.  ii.  109 
Arcturus,  ii.  110 
Arctus,  ii.  109  ff 
Ardea  (ancient  town  in   Latium), 

iii.  47 
Areopagus,  ii.  74 
Argo,  ii.  89,  114 
Argus,  iil  56 
Aristaeus,  iii.  45 
Aristippus    (of  Cyrene,    pupil    of 

Socrates,    founder    of  Cyrenaic 

school  of  hedonism),  iii.  77 
Aristo   (of    Chios,    Stoic,    reacted 

towards    Cynicism),    i.   37;     iii, 

77 
Aristotle  (385-322  b.c),  quoted,  ii. 

42,  4J,  61,   95,    125;    Epicurean 

criticism  of,  i.  20,  33,  93 ;    dia- 


logue  On  Philosophy  (lost),  i,  33, 

107 
Ar^inoe,  iii.  57 
Arsippus,  iii.  57 

Asia  (under  K.  Dionysus),  iii.  58 
asomata,  i.  30 
Astarte  (Venus),  iii.  69 
Asteria  (mother  of  Hercules),  iii. 

42;  (of  Ilecate),  iii.  46 
astronomy,  heliocentric,  i.  24  ;   ii. 
"53,    TTw*,    geocentric,   ii.   91,  98 ; 

the  planets,  ii.   51  ff.,  103,  119; 

exhalation,  ii.  40,  83,  118;  iii.  87 
Astypalaea(one  of  Cyclades  islands 

near  Cos),  iii.  46 
atheism,  i.  (52  f.,  118;  iii.  89 
^f^eos(Diogenes),  i.  62 
Atreus,  iii.  53,  68,  76 
Attic  wit,  i.  93 
Attus  Navius,  ii.  9 ;  iii.  14 
augury,  ii.  7tf.,  65,  160;  iii.  52 

Behis,  iii.  42 
Boeotia,  iii.  49 
Boot€s,  ii.  109  f. 
botany,  ii.  29,  33,  120,  127 
Britain,  barbarism  of,  ii,  88;  tides 
in,  iii.  24 

Cabirus,  iii,  58 
Cadmus,  iii.  48 
Caelius    Antipater   (Roman   jurist 

JL    end    of    2ad    centnry    b.c, 

wrote   history   of   Punic  wars), 

ii.  8 
Caelus  (Uranus),  ii,  63  ;  iii.  44,  53  ff. 
Calatinus,  Atilius  (consul  258  and 

•254  B.c,  deteated  Carthaginiuns 

in  Ist  Punic  war),  ii.  61,  165 
Calchas,  ii.  7 

Camirus  (city  in  Rhodes),  iii.  64 
Cancer,  ii.  110 
Canicula  (Sirius),  iii.  26 
Cannae  (death  ofPauUus  atbattle 

of,  216  B.c),  iii.  80 
Carbo    (C.    Papirius,    partisan    of 

Gracchi,  but  defeuded  murdereT 

of  Gaius),  i.  64 
Carneales  (of  Cyrene,  214-129  b.c, 

head      of      Middle      Academy; 

Athenian  amba.s.sador  to    Rome 

155  B.c),  i.   4,  11 ;   ii,  162 ;    iii. 

29,  44 
Carthage,  iii,  42,  83,  91 

389 


INDEX  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 


Ca^tor  and  Pollux,  ii.  6;  iii.  11  ff., 

63 
cat  deified  in  Egypt,   i.   82,  101 ; 

iii.  47 
Cato  (censor  184  B.c),   L   71 ;    ii. 

165;  iii.  11 
Critnlus  the  elder  (consul  102  b.c, 

died  in  Marian  proscription  67 

B.c),  i.  79  ;  iii.  80 
Catulus   the   younger   (consul    78 

B.c),  i.  79 
Centaurs,  iii.  51 
ceRtripetal  universe,  ii.  115 ff. 
Cerberus,  iii.  43 
Cercops,  i.  107 
Ceres  (  =  earth),  i.  40;  il.  67;   iii. 

52,  62  ;  (  =  corn),  ii.  60  ;  iii.  41,  52 
Charon,  iii.  43 
Chimaera,  i.  108 ;  ii.  5 
ChroDOB  (=Kronos),  ii.  64 
Chrysippus    (280-206    B.c,    third 

head  of  Stoic  school),  i.  39 ;  ii.  16, 

37,  63,  160;  iii.  18,  25,  63;  nick- 

named  Chrysippa,  i.  93 
Cicero,  biographical  details,  i.  14, 

59,  79,  93 ;  iii.  46,  59,  83  ;  philo- 

sophical  studies,  i.  5-12 
Cinna    (consul    87  b.c,   leader  in 

ilarian  massacre),  iii.  80  f. 
Circe,  iii.  48,  54 
Cleanthes  (succeeded  Zeno  as  head 

of  Stoic    school  c.    260  b.c),  i. 

37 ;  ii.  13,  24,  40,  63 ;  iii.  16,  63 
Cocytus,  iii.  43 
Codrus,  iii.  49 
Concord  (temple  on  Capitol   built 

367  B.C   on  passing  of  Licinian 

laws),  ii.  61 ;  iii.  47,  61 
conscience  a  witness  to  God,  iii. 

46,  85 
Corinth,   fall  of,   146  B.c,   iiL   91 

(see  note) 
Coronis,  iii.  50  (see  crit.  n.) 
Coruncanius  i.  115  ;  ii.  165  ;  iii.  5 
Cotta  (see  Introd.  p.  xiv),  i.  15 ;  ii. 

168  ;  iiL  5,  95 

fjpnfinn   nf  U-nrlfi  inp.f^pppH'a>.lft,    i. 

i9  ff. 
Ciitolaus,  iii.  91  n. 
crocodile,  i.  82,  101 ;   iL  124,  129  ; 

iiL  47 
Cronos,  ii.  64 
Crotona  (see  Locri),  ii.  6 
Cupidines,  iiL  59  ff. 

S90 


Cupido,  ii.  61 ;  iii.  58 

Curius,  iL  165 

cycle  of  existence  of  world,  11.  118 

Decii  (P.   Decius  Mus  immolated 

himself  in   Latin  war  340  b.c.  ; 

son  of  same  name  fell  at  Seu- 

tinum  iu  Etru.scau  war  205  b.c.  ; 

grandson  fell  at  Asculiim  in  war 

against    PviThus  279    b.c),    iii. 

15  ;  c/.  ii.  10 
Deianeira  (wife   of  Hercales),   iiL 

70 
deification  of  abstractions,   ii.  60 

ff.,  79 
Delphi,  iii.  57 
Democritus  (of  Abdera  in  Thrace, 

c.  460-361   b.c,    atomist),  i.    29, 

75,  93,  107,  120 ;  iL  76 ;  doctrine 

of  design,  ii.  120  ff. 
Diagoras  (of  Melos,  '  the  Atheist,' 

pupil  of  Democritus,  fled  from 

Athens    when    prosecuted     for 

impiety  411  b.c),  L  2,  63,  117; 

iiL  89 
Diana,  ii.  68  f.  ;  iii.  58 
Digiti     (Dactyli,     '  Fingers,'     five 

wise  men    of  Mt.   Ida  in  Crete 

or  Plirygia,  Hercules  being  the 

eldest),  iii.  42 
Diodotus  (Stoic  philosopher,  lived 

with  Cicero  from  84  to  his  death 

59  B.C.),  i.  6 
Diogenes     of    Apollonia    (natural 

philosopher,   5th  cent.    B.C.),   L 

29 
Diogenes  of  Babylon  (fourth  head 

of  Stoic  school,  mid.  2nd  cent. 

B.C.),  i.  41 
Diogenes  the  Cynic  (d.  323  B.c), 

ilL  83,  88 
Dioiivsius    (the    elder,    tyrant    of 

Syracuse,  405-368  ac),  iii.  82  ff. 
Dioscuri,  iii.  53 
'  Dis,'  from  dives,  ii.  66 
divination  (mantike),  i.  55  ;  IL  4  S., 

162  f.,  166;  iii.  5,  11  ff.,  95 
Drusus    (reformer,    murdered     91 

B.C.),  iiL  80  f. 
Duellius,  ii.  165 

■iTyeiJ.oviKoi'.    See  hegemonikon, 
Ei^yptian  mythology,  i.  43 
ei/xap/aei^.     8ee  heiriiarmerU. 


INDEX  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 


elements,   denizens   of,  i.  103 ;   ii. 

42 
elephant,  ii.  151,  161 
Eieiisis,  i.  119 
Empedocles       (philosopher      and 

statesman    of    Agrigentum,    jl. 

400  B.c),  i.  29,93 
Ennniasin    {ev  yovacTLv,   COnstella- 

tion  of  a  kneelina;  man),  ii.  lOS 
Eunius  (Roman  epic  poet  239-169 

B.C.),  i.  119;  ii.  4,  65,  93;  iii.  10, 

41»,  65  f.,  75,  79 
Epicurus,  his  theology  expounded, 

i.  IS  S.  ;  demolished,  i.  57  ff. 
epiphanies,  i.  36,  46,  76;  ii.  6,  166  ; 

iii.  11  ff, 
epoche,  i.  11 
Erebns,  iii.  44 
Ereclitheus    (legendary     king     of 

Athens,  to  secure  whose  \actorj' 

in    war     his     daughters    offered 

their  lives  iu  sacritice),  iii.  49  f. 
'Ecnrepo?.     See  Hesperos 
'Ea-rCa-     See  Hestia 
eternity,  the  notion  of,  i.  22 
PJtna,  eruption  of,  ii.  96 
Etruscan  augury,  ii.  10  tL 
Eubouleus,  iii.  53 
Euhemerus    (Greek    rationalizing 

mythologist,  fl.  300  B.C.),  L  119 
Eunienides,  iii.  46 
Euripides,  quoted,  iL  65 
Europa,  i.  78  ;  ii.  165  ;  iil  24 
Eviolus  (?),  iii.  53 

Fabius,    Q.    Maximus    Cunctator 

(dedicated  temple  to  Honos  233 

B.C.,   hero   of   2nd  Punic  war), 

ii.  61,  165 ;  iii.  80 
Fabricius,  iL  165 
Faunus,  ii.  6;  iii.  15 
tiie,  vital  properties  of,  L  103 ;  ii. 
'  4u,    42  ;    Heraclitus's    primary, 

refuted,  iii.  35  ff. 
fish,  Avorship  of,  iii.  39,  47 
Flaminius,  C.  (consul,  fell  in  battle 

with  Hannibal  at  Trasimene  217 

B.c),  ii.  8 
flux,  basis  of  life,  i.  39 ;  ii.  84 ;  iii. 

30 
Fons  (god  of  wells,  son  of  Janus), 

iii.  52 
Formiae  (Mola  di  Gaieta  :  ruins  of 

Cicero'3  vilJa  still  shown),  iii.  86 


friendship,  ulilitarian,  i.  122 
Furies,  Furina,  iii.  46 

Gelo  (tyrant  of  Syracuse  491-478 
B.C),  iii.  S3 

Gemeter,  ii.  67 

Gigas,  ii.  70 

Glaiice,  iii.  58 

Gracchus,  Ti.  Sempronius  (consul 
177  and  163  b.c,  father  of  the 
tribunes),  i.  106 ;  ii.  10,  11,  165 

gravitation,  ii.  115 

Haedi    (' Kids,'  constellation),    ii. 

110 
hand.  mechanism  of,  ii.  150  ff. 
Hannibal,  iii.  80 
Harpalus  (protligate  treasurer    of 

Alexander,    fled    to  Athens    324 

B.c),  iii.  83 
Hasdrubal,  iii.  91 
hawk,  ii.  125 
heat  vital,  ii.  23  ff. 
hedonism  refutt^d,  i.  111  S. 
he'jemonikon,  ii.  29 
hcimarmene,  i.  55 
Helenus   (.son  of  Priara,   foretold 

fjrtunes  of  Aeneas).  ii.  7 
Heliee  ('screw'),  ii.  105,  110 
Heliopoli.s  (ci:y  on  Nile),  iii.  54 
Heraclides    of    Pontus    (pupil    of 

Plato  and  Aristotle),  i.  34 
Heraclitus    ('the  obycure,'  philo-- 

sopher  of  Ephesus,  late  6th  ceut. 

B.C.)  i.  74;  iii.  35 
Hercules,  ii.  02 ;    iii.  39,  41  f.,  50, 

70,  88 
Hermarchus    (of     Mitylene,    suo 

ceeded  Epicurus),  i.  93 
Hesiod,  L  41  ;  iL  159;  iii.  44 
Hesperides,  iiL  44 
He-'peros,  ii.  53 
Hestia,  ii.  67 
Hiero  (tyrant  of  Syracuse  478-467 

B.C.),  i.  60 
Hippocentaur,  i.  105  ;  ii.  5 
Hippocrates  (fl-  400  b.c),  iiL  91 
Hippolytus,  iii.  76 
Hipponax    (of   Ephesus,    late   6th 

cent.  B.C,  invented5c«i07iorlimp- 

ing  iambus,   satirized    scnlptors 

Bupalus  and    Atlienis   \n1io  had 

caricatured  him),  iii.  91 

391 


INDEX  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 


Homer,  i.  41 ;  ii.  70,  165  ;  ilL  11,  41 
Honor,  ii.  61 ;  iii.  47,  61 
hormai  (impulses  of  will),  ii.  58 
Hyades,  ii.  111 
Hyperion,  iii.  54 

lalysus,  iii.  54 

iambus.     See  nii  ponax 

lanus,  ii.  67 

lason  (tyrant  of  Pherae  in  Thessaly, 

assa:-sinated  370  b  c),  iii.  70 
ibis,  i.  82,  101 ;  ii.  120 ;  iii.  47 
iclineumon,  i.  101 
Idyia,  iii.  48 
imagines,  i.  29,  49,  73,  lCGff.,  120; 

ii.  76 
India,  i,  88,  97 

Indus,  greatest  of  rivers,  ii.  130 
Ino  (sea  goddess,   gave    Odysseus 

veil  on   wbich  he  floated   after 

sbipwreck,  Od.  v.  833  ff.),  iii.  48 
intermundia,  i.  18 
Iris,  iii.  51 
Isis,  iii.  47 
isjnomia,  i.  50,  109 
luno,  i.  82  ;  ii.  66 
lupiter,   derivation,  ii.  64 ;    Stoic, 

the  supreme  law,  i.  40 ;  tbe  sky, 

ii.    4,    65,    119 ;    Capitolinus,    i. 

82 ;   Hammon,  i.   82 ;   planet,  ii. 

119  ;    Olympian,  iii.  83 ;    source 

of  dreams,  iii.  95  ;  three  Jupiters, 

iii.  53 
luventus  (Hebe),  i.  112 

KvoBOfi  =  chronos,  ii.  64 
kyk!os,  ii.  47 
Kyriai  Doxai,  i.  85 

Labor,  iii.  44 

Laelius     (C.     Sapiens,     friend    of 

younger    Afrieanus,    and    chief 

speaker  in  De  Amicitia),  ii.  165  ; 

iii.  5,  43 
liatona,  iii.  46,  57  f. 
Leda,  iii.  53 
Lemnos,  i.  119;  iii.  55 
Leontium  (pupil  of  Epicurus),  i.  94 
Lencippus  (atomic  physicist,  fore- 

runner  of  Democritus,  date  un- 

certain),  i.  66 
Leucothea  (epithet  of  Ino),  iii.  39, 

48 
Liber,  ii.  00,  62;  iii.  41,  63 

392 


Libera,  ii.  63 

Libya,  iii.  24 

liver,  ii.  11.7;  iii.  14 

Locri,  ii.  6  ;  iii.  11,  83 

Lubentina  (or  Libitina,  a  form  of 
Venus,  and  goddess  of  death 
because  deaths  were  registered  in 
her  temple  at  Rome),  ii.  61 

Lucifer,  ii.  53 ;  iii.  51 

Lucilius(satirist,  148-103  B.C.),  i.  64 

Luclna,  ii.  68 

Luna,  ii.  68  ;  iii.  51,  58 

Lutatius  (C.  Lutalius,  defeated 
Carthaginian  fleet  off  Aegates 
islands  and  ended  Ist  Punic  war, 
241  B.c),  ii.  165 

Lyceum  (shrine  at  Athens,  its 
grove,  peripatos,  the  resort  of 
Aiistotle),  i.  72 

Lycurgus  (lawgiver  of  Sparta),  iii. 
91 

Lysithoe,  iiL  42 

viachina,  dev,s  ex,  i.  53 

magi,  i.  43 

Mala  Fortuna,  iii.  63 

man,  image  of  God,  i.  90;  noblest 

work  of  God,   ii.   133  ff.;  world 

made  for,  ii.  154  ff. ;  belittled,  ii. 

17,  34ff.,   79;    bodily  structure, 

ii.  134  ff.,  139  ff. 
rnanfike,  i.  55 
Marcellus,   M.  (defeated  Gauls  at 

Clastidium    222    b.c,     be.^^iegt^d 

SjTacuse  in  2nd  Punic  war,  ftdl 

at  Venusia  208  b.c),  ii.  61,  165 ; 

iii.  80 
Marius,  C.  (democratic  leader,  157- 

86  B.c),  iii.  80  f. 
Mars,  ii.  53,  67,  119;  iii.  .59,  62 
Maso  (C.  Papirius,  defeated  Corsi- 

cans  2^1  B.C.),  iii.  52 

iii.  29f.,92 


Mavors,'  etymology  of,  ii.  67  ;  iii. 

62 
Medea,  iii.  48 ;   Medfa  of  Ennius, 

iii.  65  f.,  75 ;  of  Accius,  ii.  89  ; 

iii.  67 
Melete,  iii.  54 

'  meuses '  from  m^nsa,  ii.  69 
MfTCury,  iii.  56  ff. 
Metcllus  (consul  250  B.c),  ii.  265; 

bis  murder(otherwiseunknown), 

iii.  81 


INDEX  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 


Metrodorus  (Epicunis's  most  dis- 
tiuguished  pupil,  d.  277  B.C.),  i. 
86,  i>3,  113 

mind  in  matter,  i.  25  f.  ;  ii.  18,  58, 
61  ;  iii.  47,  61,  88 

Minerva,  i.  81,  83,  100;  ii.  67;  iii. 
53,  55,  59,  63 

Miseria,  iii.  44 

Mnemosyne,  iii.  54 

mole,  i.  79  f. 

Moneta,  iii.  47 

vionogrammos  deos,  ii.  59 

moou,  ii.  19,  50,  103,  119 

Mopsus,  ii.  7 

Musae,  iii.  45,  54,  88 

Musaeas  (mythical  poet),  i.  41 

mysteries,  i.  119 ;  ii.  62  ;  iii.  58 

mythology,  personitication  of 
natural  forces,  ii.  62  ;  popular, 
rldiculed,  ii.  70;  iii.  11,  16 

nature,  blind  force  of  Epicurus  and 
New  Academy,  i.  35,  53 ;  ii.  43, 
76,  81  f.  ;  iii.  27  f.  ;  rational,  of 
Stoics,  ii.  36  ff.,  57,  76;  sur- 
passes  art,  i.  92;  ii.  35,  57  f.,  82 
ff.  ;  deification  of  forces  of,  ii.  63 

Naus'phanes  (teacher  of  Epicurus), 
i.  73,  93 

Navius.     Sea  Attus 

Decessity  =  God,  i.  39;  opposed  to 
reason,  ii.  76  f.,  88 

Neptune,  i.  40 ;  ii.  60,  66,  71  ;  iii. 
43,  52,  62,  64,  76 

Nilus,  ii.  130 ;  iii.  42,  54,  56,  58  f. 

Nisus  (nursed  infant  Bacchus),  iii. 
58 

Nodinus  (unknown  stream  near 
Rome),  iii.  52 

Nomios  {nomos,  law),  iii.  57 

Numa  (second  king  of  Rome),  iii. 
5,  43 

Nymphae,  iil.  43 

Octavian  war(Gn.  Octavius,  consul 
87  B.c,  fought  for  Sulla  against 
the  Marian  consul  Cinna),  ii.  14 

Olympias  (niother  of  Alexander  the 
Great),  ii.  69 

Ophiuchus  ('snake-holder'),  ii. 
109 

Ops  (wife  of  Saturn,  goddess  of 
earth  and  wealth,  had  temple  on 
Capitol),  ii.  61  ;  iii.  88 


optimism  of  Stoics,  ii.  18,  86  f. 
Orbona  (goddess  of  bereavement), 

iii.  63 
Orion,  ii.  113  ;  iii.  26 
optJ.aC  (impulses  of  will),  ii.  58 
Orpheus,  i.  41,  107;  iii.  45,  58 
orreries,  ii.  88 

Pacuvius  (Roman  tragedian,  b.  o 
220  B.C.),  iii.  48 

Palaemon,  iii.  39 

Pallas,  father  of  Minerva,  iiL  59 

Pamphilus,  teacher  of  Epicurus,  i. 
72 

Pan,  iii.  56 

Panaetius  (of  Rhodes,  180-111  b.o., 
eclectic  Stoic,  friend  of  Scipio, 
wrote  Ilepl  ToO  KaOrjKovTO^;,  tlie 
basis  of  Cicero's  De  Officlis),  ii. 
118 

Panisci,  iii.  43 

pantheism  ridiculed,  1.  25,  52  t 

panther,  i.  88  ;  ii.  126 

Parcae  (the  fates),  iii.  44 

Paris,  iii.  91 

Parmenides  (idealist  philosopher 
of  Elea,  5th  cent.  b.c,  pupil 
of  Xenophanes,  wrote  didactic 
poem  On  Kature,  frags.  extant), 
i.  28 

Pasiphae,  iii.  48 

Paulus  (L.  Aemilius  Macedonicus, 
defeated  Perses,  last  king  of 
Macedon,  at  Pydna,  168  b.c),  ii. 
6,  165;  his  father  defeated  at 
Cannae  (by  Hannibal,  216  b.c), 
iii.  80 

Peducaea  rogatio,  iii.  74 

Pelops,  iii.  53 

Penates,  etymology  of,  ii.  68 

Penelopa,  iii.  56 

Peripatetics,  i.  16 

Persaeus,  Stoic  philosopher,  i.  38 

Perseis,  daughter  of  Oceanus,  iil. 
48 

Persephone,  ii.  66 

Perses.     See  Paullus 

Pertinacia,  iii.  44 

pessimism  of  Epicurus,  L  23 
Academic,  iii.  79  f. 

Phaedo,  i.  93  ;  iii.  82  (n.) 

Phaedrus(head  of  Epicurean  school, 
d.  70  B.c  ),  i.  93 

Phaenon  =  S&tuTn,  ii.  62 

S93 


INDEX  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 


Phaxthon,  ii.  52  ;  iii.  76 

Plialaris    (tyrant    of    Agrigenturu 

560-540  B.c),  iii.  S2 
Pheneaiae    (Arcadian    tribe),    iii. 

5(5 
Philo  (foander  of  New  Academy, 

teacher  of  Cicero),  L  6, 11,  17,  59, 

113 
Philodemus,  i.  45,  49 
pbilosophy,  value  of,  i.  6  f.  ;  ii.  1, 

3,  168  ;  four  schools  of,  i,  16 
Phosphoros,  ii.  53 
Plithas,  iii.  65 
physicists,  the  early,  their  theology 

refuted,  i.  25  ff. 
physiology,  human,  ii.  134  fir. 
Pierides,  Pierus,  iii.  54 
Pisistratus  (three  times  tyrant  of 

Athens,  d.  527  B.c),  iii.  82 
Piso  (M.  Pupius  Calpurnius,  consul 

61  B.c,  expounder  of  Peripatetic 

system  in  De  Finibus  v.),  i.  16 
planets,  ii.  51  f. 
Plato  on  creation,  1.  19  ff.  ;  incon- 

sistency  of,  i.  30;    'divine,'  ii. 

32 ;  Timaeus,  i.  19 ;  Phaedo,  iii.  82 
Pluto,  ii.  66 
poiotes,  ii.  96 
Portunus,  ii.  66 
Posid  0  n  ius  (eclectic  Stoic  at  Rhodes, 

where      Cicero      attended      his 

lectures),  i.  6,  123  ;  ii.  SS 
Postumius,  Aulus  (dictator  in  early 

republic),  iii.  13 
probability,  i.  12 
Prodicus    (of    Ceos,    b.    470  B.c, 

sophist  at  Athens),  i.  118 
progress  {wrokope),  iii.  79 
prolepsis,  i.  43 

pronoia,  i.  18,  20 ;  ii.  58,  73,  160 
Proserpine,  iii.  79 
Protagoras(of  Abdera,  490-415  b.c, 

sophist,   banished  from   Athens 

for  impiety),  i.  2,  20,  63 
providence,  proved,  ii.  73-153 ;   in 

structure  of  world,  ii.  154  ff.  ;  re- 

futed,   iiL  65  ff.  ;  care  for  indi- 

vidual  men,  iL  164  ff. ;  refuted, 

iii.  79  ff. 
Punic  war,  first  (264-242  b.c),  ii. 

71  ;  second  (218-202  B.c),  iL  65 
Pyrrhus  (king  of  Epirus,   at  war 

with  Rome  inltaly,  280-276  B,c), 

iL  165 

394 


Pythagoras  (born  529  b.c  at  Samo,% 
taught  at  Crotona  in  Italy, 
founded  religious  brotherhood), 
i.  10,  74,  107  ;  iiL  88 

qualitas,  ii.  96 
Querella,  iiL  44 

rationality  of  universe,  ii.  16  ff, 
reason,  human,  ii.  157 ;  not  neces- 

sarily  beneflcial,  iii.  70  ff. 
Regillus  (lake    in   Latium,   where 

Romans     defeated    Latins,    498 

B.C.),  ii.  6 
Regulus  (hero  of  Ist  Punic  war), 

ii.  80 
'  religio,*  etymology  of,  iii.  72 
Rhesus    (son    of  a    Muse    and    of 

Strymon  the  king  and  river  of 

Thrace),  iii.  45 
Romulus,  founder  of  augury,  ii.  9 ; 

iii.  5  ;  deification  of,  ii.  62  ;  iii.  39 
Roscius  (actor),  i.  79 
rotation  the  divine  motion,  ii.  99  ff. 
Rutilius  {lcgatus  in  Asia,  exiled  on 

false  char^e  of  peculation,  c.  98 

B.c),  iii.  80,  86 

Sabazius  (identified  with  Dionysus), 

iii,  58 
Sagra  (small  river  in  S,  Italy,  scene 

of   victory    of   Locrian    settleii 

over  Crotona,  c.  5G0  B.c),  ii.  6 
Salaria  (via),  iii.  11 
Samothrace  (island  in  N.  Aegean, 

seat  of  Cabeiric  mystery  ritual), 

iL  6 
Saturn,  etymology  of  name,  iL  64 ; 

iii.  53,  02 ;   worship  of,  iii.  44 ; 

the  planet,  ii.  52,  119 
Scaevola,  P.  (consul  123  B,a),  L 115  ; 

iii.  5 
Scaevola,  Q.  (son  of  above,  assassi- 

nated  82  b.c),  iii.  80 
Scaurus  (163-'J0  B.c,leader  of  Opti- 

mates),  ii.  61 
scepticism,  L  1,  63,  117 ;  justified, 

L  10  ff. 
Scipio,     P.    Cornelius     Africanus 

Major,  ii.  165 ;  Minor  (his  muider 

foretold  by  prodigies,  129  b,c,), 

ii.  14  ;  iii.  80 
Scipio,  P.  Comelius  Nasica  (consul 

162  B.c),  iL  10;  liL  5 


INDEX  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 


i 


Soipio,  P.  and  Cn.  (brotliers,  fell  in 

ypaiu  212  B.c),  iii.  80 
seuse  organs,  mau's,  ii.  140  S. 
Septentriones,  IL  105,  109  f. 
Seraii.s,  iii.  47 
Sei  iphus  (one  of  Cyclades  islands), 

i.  bS 
Sibyllae,  ii.  10 ;  iii.  5 
si,j;ht,  theory  of,  ii.  88,  144  f. 
SilvaiiUs,  ii.  89 
Simonide.s  (lyric  poet  of  Ceos,  550- 

470  B.C.),  at  courtof  Hiero,  tyrant 

of  Syracuse,  i.  60 
Socrates,  i.  95 
'sol,'  ii.  66 

Sosius  (unknown),  iii.  74 
Sospita     (Juno     'the     saviour'), 

temple  of,  at  Lanuvium,  i.  82 

('squUof  man,  i.  27,  91 ;  ii.  18,  79 ; 
^ mT  12;  of  the  world.  i.  25  ff..  36 

fif.  ;  ii.  24  gr.'  57 ;  iiL  28  tC 
sound,  li.  }j!i,"  144,  1^67149 
Sparta,  iL  165  ;  iii.  91 
speech,  organs  of,  ii.  148  ff. 
Speusippus  (nepbew  of  Plato),  i.  33 
sphaera,  ii.  47,  55  ;  (orrery)  ii,  88,  97 
splierical  forra  divine,  iL  45  ff. 
spider,  ii.  123 

Spino,  a  river  (unknown),  iiL  52 
stars,  divine,  ii.  39  ;  motions  of,  iL 

51  ff.,  103 
Stephane  of  Parmenides,  i.  28 
stcremnia,  i.  49 
Stoics,  i.  4 ;   iii.  77 ;   theology  re- 

futed,  i.  36  ff.  ;  defended,  ii. 
Strato  (became  head  of   Lyceum, 

2S7  B.c),  i.  35 
Stratonicus  (Athenian  musician  in 

time  of  Alexander),  iii.  50 
8un,  iL  29,  40  ff.,  79,  102,  118  f.  ; 

iii.  37  ;  mock  suns,  ii.  14 
'superstitio,'  etymo.ogy  of,  ii.  72 
swerve  of  atoms,  i.  69 
Syrian  fish-worship,  iiL  39 

Tantalidae,  iii.  90 

teuth,  iL  127,  134 ;  iiL  57 

Teilus,  iii.  52 

Terence  quoted,  ii.  60  ;  iii.  72  f. 

Tliaumas,  iii.  51 

TheLxinoe,  iii.  54 

Theodorus  (Cyrenaic  philosopher, 

end  of  4th  cent.  b.c),  L  2,  63, 

117 


theophanies  denied,  iii.  11  ff. 
Tlieuphrastus  (succeeded  Aristotle 

as  head  of  Lyceura,  d.  278  b.c), 

i.  35 
Theseus,  iii.  45,  76 
Tlieuth,  iii.  56 
Thyestes  (brotlier  of  Atreus),  iii. 

68 
Thyone  (name  of  deified  Semele, 

motlier  of  Dionysus),  iii.  58 
Tiberinus  (deity  of  river  Tiber),  iiL 

52 
tides,  ii.  19 ;  iii.  23  f. 
Timocrates  (pupil  of  Epicurus),  L 

93 
Tiresias  (mythical  bliud  seer),  ii.  7 
transubstantiation,  iii.  41 
Trasimene    (Etruscan    lake     near 

Perusia),  ii.  8 
Trieterides    (biennial    festival    at 

Thebes),  iii.  58 
Triton,  i.  78  ;  ii.  89 
Trophonius  (built  t«mple  of  Delphi, 

after  death  worshipped  as  hero 

and  had  oracular  cave  in  Boeotia), 

iii.  49,  56 
Tubulus  (praetor  142  b.c),  L  63; 

iii.  74 
Tyndaridae,  iii  11 

Ulixes,  iL  166 

undogmatic  theology  defended,  L 

10  f. 
Upis,  iiL  58 
Uranus.     See  Caelus 

Valens  Cltrvu?,  son  of  Elatus),  iiL 

56 
Varius    (tribune    91  b.c.,    tool    of 

Equites     against     Drusus),    his 

death  (otherwise  unknown),  iii.  81 
vegetarianism,  ii.  159  ;  iii.  88 
Veiovis  (ancient  Sabine  and  Latin 

god),  iii.  62 
Venus,  ii.  60  f.,  69  (etymology) ;  iiL 

62  ;  four  of  the  name,  iiL  57 
Vesta,  iL  67,  80 
Victoria,  iL  61  ;  iii.  61,  88 
Victoriolae,  iii.  84 
Vulcan,  L  81,  83  f.  ;   iii.  64  t,  69, 

62 

weazel,  ii.  17 

Wolf-god  in  Egypt,  iii.  47 

395 


INDEX  TO  DE  NATURA  DEORUM 


Xenocrates  (39^1 -314  b.c,  third 
head  of  Academy),  i.  34,  72 

X*^nophanes  (c.  576-480  b.c,  born 
at  Colophon,  poet,  founder  of 
Eleatic  school  of  philcsophy),  i.  28 

Xenophon,  i.  31 ;  ii.  18  Qfemora- 
bilia  quoted) ;  iii.  27 

Xerxes,  i.  115 

Zeno  the   Eleatic  (pupil   of   Par- 


menides,  died   in  attempting  to 

put  down  tyranny  at  Elea),  iii. 

82 
Zeno,  the  Epicurean  (b.  at  Sidon), 

i.  59 
Zeno,  the  founder  of  Stoicism  (b. 

at  Citium  in  Cyprus    3rd    ceiit. 

B.c.  ad  fin.),  i.  36,  57,  63,  70;  ii, 

20,  57,  63 ;  iii.  18,  22,  63,  77 
zodiao,  ii.  53 


39t> 


ACADEMICA 


l 


ACADEMICA 

INTRODUCTION 

Dates  of  Composition  and  Revision. — In  Cicero*s 
letters  to  Atticus  written  during  the  summer  of 
45  B.c,  when  he  was  in  retirement  from  public  Hfe 
(see  p.  xi),  there  are  many  references  to  his  work 
on  this  treatise.  Writing  from  Astura  on  May  13, 
and  alluding  to  the  death  of  his  daughter,  he  says  : 

*  Ego  hic  duo  magna  o-vrray/xaTa  absolvi ;  nullo  enim 
aho  modo  a  miseria  quasi  aberrare  possum  '  (Att. 
xii.  45.  1).  On  May  29,  he  writes  from  Tusculum 
(Ait.  xiii.  32.  3)  :  *  Torquatus  Romaest  ;  misi  ut  tibi 
daretur.  Catulum  et  Lucullum  ut  opinor  antea  ; 
his  hbris  nova  prohoemia  sunt  addita  quibus  eorum 
uterque  laudatur.'  Here  '  Torquatus  '  means  the 
first  two  books  of  De  Finihus,  and  *  Catuhis  '  the 
first  and  *  Lucullus  '  the  second  book  of  Academica 
In  its  first  shape  ;  so  it  is  the  latter  treatise,  and  not 
De  Finihus  I.  and  II.,  that  is  probably  referred  to  by 
the  modest  expression  in  the  preceding  quotation 

*  two  big  compilations.'  We  infer  that  Academica 
in  its  first  form  was  so  far  finished  by  the  latter  half 
of  May  that  a  copy  was  sent  to  Atticus,  new  prefaces 
being  added  a  httle  later.    Cicero  refers  to  the  treatise 


INTRODUCTION  TO  ACADEMICA 

as  *  Illam  ^A/<aS7y/xtK'/)v  a-vyTa^Lv  *  (^Att.  xiii.  6.  1), 
but  the  two  volumes  were  actually  named  Catulus 
and  Lucullus,  after  the  leading  interlocutors  in 
each.  Hortensius  also  figured  in  Catulus,  and  Cicero 
in  both. 

But  Cicero  was  not  satisfied  with  his  work  as  it 
stood,  and  began  at  once  to  revise  it,  impro^-ing  the 
style  and  making  the  treatment  more  concise  :  he 
also  di\ided  the  two  volumes  into  four.  He  writes 
of  these  alterations  with  great  satisfaction  (Att.  xiii. 
13.  1 ,  June  26)  :  '  ex  duobus  hbris  contuh  in  quattuor  : 
grandiores  sunt  omnino  quam  erant  iUi,  sed  tamen 
multa  detracta.'  Also  (Att.  xiii.  12.  3)  Atticus  seems 
to  have  suo-s^ested  that  a  hterarv  comphment  was 
due  to  Varro,  who  had  promised  to  dedicate  an 
important  work  to  Cicero  (this  was  his  De  Lingua 
Latina)  ;  and  Cicero  writes  that  although  two  years 
had  passed  without  Varro's  having  got  on  a  yard 
with  the  work  (*  adsiduo  cursu  cubitum  nullum  pro- 
cesserit '),  he  has  decided  to  transfer  to  him  the 
dedication  of  Academica,  and  to  postpone  paying 
a  comphment  to  Catulus,  Lucullus  and  Hortensius, 
*  homines  nobiles  ilh  quidem  sed  nullo  modo  philo- 
logi  '  (ibid.),  in  fact,  well  known,  not  indeed  for 
o.TraLSevcTLa  (want  of  education),  but  for  arpLxj/La 
(lack  of  special  training)  in  these  subjects  (^Att. 
xiii.  13.  1). 

CoNTENTS. — In  Cicero's  encyclopaedia  of  philosophy 
Academica  is  the  article  on  Epistemology,  the  theory 
of  knowledge.  In  his  earher  draft  of  the  work,  in 
Book  L,  Catulus,  the  scepticism  of  Carneades  (Middle 
Academy)  and  his  doctrine  of  '  probabihty  '  were 
400 


INTRODUCTION  TO  ACADEMICA 

expounded  by  Catulus  ;  Hortensius  countered  with 
the  dogmatism  of  Antiochus  (Old  Academy),  and 
Cicero  put  the  case  of  Philo  (Middle  Academy), 
that  '  probability  '  is  consistent  with  Platonism.  In 
Book  II.,  Lucullus,  Luculhis  defended  the  cause 
of  Antiochus  by  attacking  Scepticism,  and  then 
Scepticism  was  defended  by  Cicero.  In  the  second 
echtion  Cicero  and  Varro  were  the  sole  interlocutors  ; 
Cicero  championed  the  Middle  Academy  as  well 
as  the  New,  and  the  Old  Academy  was  assigned  to 
Varro. 

It  is  to  this  second  edition  that  Cicero  refers  in  his 
letters  in  all  allusions  to  the  work  after  the  alteration 
was  made  ;  its  title  was  now  Academica,  though  he 
also  describes  it  as  *  Academici  hbri.'  But  he  seems 
not  to  have  succeeded  in  entirely  suppressing  the 
first  edition  ;  and  by  a  curious  accident  the  second 
half  of  the  first  edition  has  come  do^vn  to  us,  while 
of  the  second  edition  only  the  first  quarter  and  a  few 
fragments  of  the  remainder  have  survived.  We 
therefore  have  only  three  quarters  of  the  whole  work, 
and  only  one  quarter  of  it  in  the  form  finally  author- 
ized  by  the  -vvriter.  Some  modern  editors  have 
designated  the  extant  part  of  Edition  I.  '  Academica 
Priora  *  and  that  of  Edition  II.  *  Academica 
Posteriora,'  but  so  far  as  I  know  the  significance 
intended  to  be  conveyed  by  the  adjectives  in  those 
titles  has  no  classical  authority. 

The  position  can  be  most  clearly  exhibited  in 
tabular  form  ;  the  parts  of  the  editions  that  are  not 
now  extant  and  the  names  of  the  speakers  in  those 
parts  are  printed  in  italics  : 

401 


INTRODUCTION  TO  ACADEMICA 


SUBJECTS. 

Expo 

KEKTS. 

Ed.  I. 

Ed.  II. 

C  Catulus  ') 

('  Academica, 
Liber  I.') 

Carneades'8  scepticism  : 

Catulus. 

'  Prohability.^ 

Antiochus's  dogmatism. 

Hortensius. 

Varro. 

PhUo's  '  Probability 

Cicero. 

Cicero. 

Platonic' 

(Liber  II.) 

Carneades^s  scepticism. 

Cicero. 

Antiochus's  polemic 
against  scepticism. 

Defence  of  scepticism. 


(•  Lucullus.')       (Liber  III.) 
LucuUus.  Varro. 


Cicero. 


{Liher  IV.) 
Cicero. 


Dramatis  Personae. — Q.  Lutatius  Catulus,  a  dis- 
tinguished  leader  of  the  aristocracy,  was  consul  \vith 
Lepidus  in  78  b.c,  when  he  resisted  his  colleague's 
efforts  to  abrogate  the  acts  of  SuUa,  and  next  year 
defeated  him  in  the  battle  of  the  Milvian  Bridge. 
He  opposed  the  conferment  of  extraordinary  powers 
on  Pompey  in  67  and  6G,  and  was  censor  with  Crassus 
in  65.  He  died  in  60.  There  is  no  e\-idence  that  he 
was  interested  in  philosophy.  In  the  dialogue  he 
professes  merely  to  put  forward  the  views  of  his 
father,  the  famous  colleague  of  Marius.  The  elder 
Catulus  was  a  man  of  great  culture  and  learning, 
but  Cicero  could  not  introduce  him  into  the  dialogue 
for  reasons  of  chronology  :  he  died  in  87,  committing 
suicide  to  escape  the  proscription  of  Marius. 

L.  Licinius  Lucullus  (c.  110-57  b.c.)  was  also  a 
402 


INTRODUCTION  TO  ACADEMICA 

siipporter  of  Sulla,  and  was  famous  as  the  conqueror 
of  Slithridates.  He  was  superseded  in  his  command 
by  Pompey  in  66,  and  gradually  withdrew  from  public 
hfe.  He  had  amassed  great  wealth  on  his  Asiatic 
campaigns,  and  was  famous  for  the  splendour  of  his 
estabhshments.  He  had  Hterary  tastes  and  was  a 
generous  patron  of  letters. 

Q.  Hortensius  (114-50  b.c.)  made  a  career  and  a 
fortune  by  his  oratorical  abihty .  An  adherent  of  Sulla 
and  the  aristocratic  party,  he  was  consul  in  69  ;  but 
in  the  previous  year  the  trial  of  Verres  for  peculation 
in  Sicily  had  transferred  the  primacy  in  oratory  from 
Verres'  defender,  Hortensius,  to  his  prosecutor, 
Cicero.  Hortensius  was  an  opponent  of  Pompey, 
and  on  Pompey's  coahtion  with  Crassus  and  Caesar 
in  60  he  retired  from  poHtics. 

M.  Terentius  Varro  (116-28  b.c.)  was  the  most 
learned  of  scholars  and  the  most  encyclopaedic  of 
WTiters.  His  works  included  agriculture,  grammar, 
rehgious  and  political  antiquities,  biography,  philo- 
sophy,  geography  and  law  ;  some  parts  of  his  books 
on  the  first  two  subjects  alone  survive.  He  also  had 
a  pubHc  career ;  he  held  naval  command  against  the 
pirates  and  against  Mithridates,  and  he  supported 
Pompey  in  the  civil  war,  but  after  PharsaHa  Caesar 
forgave  him,  and  employed  his  talents  in  collecting 
books  for  a  great  pubHc  Hbrary. 

The  Imagixary  Date  of  the  dialogues  in  the  first 
edition  falls  between  63  b.c,  the  year  of  Cicero's 
consulship  (aUuded  to  Ac.  ii.  62),  and  60,  when 
Catulus  died.  The  scene  of  the  first  conversation 
(now  lost)  was  the  sea-side  villa  of  Catulus  at  Cumae, 
west  of  Naples  ;  that  of  the  second  (our  Academica  II.), 
a  day  later,  is  Hortensius's  villa  at  BauH,  a  Httle 

403 


INTRODUCTION  TO  ACADEMICA 

place  on  the  Gulf  of  Puteoli  (Pozzuoli),  just  east  of 
Cumae.  In  the  second  edition  the  scene  is  laid  at 
Varro's  villa  near  the  Lucrine  Lake,  the  enclosed 
recess  of  the  Gulf  of  PuteoU.  The  imaginary  date 
is  near  the  actual  time  of  composition  in  45  b.c. 
('  nuper,'  Ac.  i.  1). 

SouRCES  OF  AcADEMiCA. — Ciccro  frequcntly  states 
that  his  arguments  for  dogmatism  are  those  of  his  old 
teacher,  Antiochus  of  Ascalon  ;  and  it  is  pretty  clear 
that  he  merely  transcribed  them  from  some  book  or 
books  of  this  authority.  For  dramatic  effect,  at 
Ac.  ii.  11  f.  he  makes  Lucullus  profess  to  be  producing 
arguments  from  his  recollection  of  discussions  in 
which  Antiochus  had  taken  part  ;  but  there  is  no 
doubt  that  actually  he  is  writing  with  a  book  of 
Antiochus  in  front  of  him,  probably  Sosus  (see  Ac.  ii. 
12  note),  a  dialogue  in  which  Antiochus  combated 
his  old  teacher  Philo. 

The  arguments  in  defence  of  scepticism  come 
partly  from  a  work  of  Philo  tvn.ce  referred  to,  though 
not  by  its  name  {Ac.  1.  13,  ii.  11)  :  this  doubtless 
suppUed  Cicero  with  the  historical  justification  of 
the  New  Academy  which  concludes  Book  L,  and 
probably  also  with  the  historical  references  with 
which  he  begins  his  speech  that  ends  the  work 
(Ac.  ii.  66-78).  The  destructive  arguments  that 
these  follow  are  very  hkely  taken  from  Chtomachus, 
who  succeeded  Carneades  as  head  of  the  New  Academy 
in  129  B.c.  The  constructive  doctrines  of  Carneades 
that  come  next  are  drawn  from  two  works  of  Chto- 
machus  mentioned  by  their  names  (ii.  98,  103)  ;  and 
the  historical  passage  that  concludes  is  doubtless  also 
from  Chtomachus,  who  wrote  a  book  Ilept  AlpecrciDV 
(Diogenes  Laertius  ii.  92). 
404 


INTRODUCTION  TO  ACADEMICA 

Manuscripts. — Scholars  range  the  mss.  of  Academtca 
I.  in  two  famihes,  derived  from  two  archetypes  of  the 
twelfth  century  or  older.  Of  the  former  family,  one 
Ms.,  '  codex  Puteanus,' Parisinus  6331  (which  con- 
tains  De  Finihus  also),  is  placed  by  recent  critics  in 
the  twelfth  century,  and  several  mss.  related  to  it 
belong  to  the  fourteenth  or  fifteenth  century.  Of 
the  latter  family,  all  are  fourteenth  or  fifteenth 
century.  In  the  present  edition  only  a  few  specially 
interesting  variants  are  given,  the  readings  of 
Puteanus  being  quoted  as  P,  but  the  other  mss. 
not  being  distinguished. 

Academica  II.  is  contained  in  the  same  mss.  as 
De  Natura  Deorum,  for  which  see  p.  xviii. 

Editions. — J.  S.  Reid's  edition  of  1884  (London)  is 
a  most  valuable  resource  ;  it  contains  an  exhaustive 
introduction  and  commentary. 

The  newest  text  is  that  of  Plasberg  (Teubner, 
Leipzig,  1922).  In  this  the  evidence  for  the  text  is 
fuUy  set  out ;  also  the  preface  gives  in  full  all  the 
passages  in  Cicero's  Letters  that  refer  to  Academica, 
and  a  valuable  study  of  the  relation  between  Cicero's 
two  editions. 

Literary  students  will  also  be  grateful  to  Mr.  Plasberg 
for  two  quotations  that  grace  the  back  of  his  title-page — 
one  from  Pliny  {Nat.  Hist.  xxxi.  6)  which  shows  that  Cicero 
actually  named  his  villa  at  Puteoli  (Pozzuoli)  '  Academia,' 
and  the  other  from  Copernicus,  vvriting  to  Pope  Paul  III. 
in  1543  and  saying  that  the  earhest  suggestion  which  he  had 
seen  that  the  eartii  is  in  motion  was  a  statement  that  he 
quotes  from  Cicero  (viz.  Ac.  ii.  123). 

H.  11. 

1932. 


405 


CICERO,  AD  FAMILIARES,  IX.  vin. 

CicERO  Varroni 

1  Etsi  munus  flagitare,  quamvis  quis  ostenderit, 
ne  populus  quidem  solet  nisi  concitatus,  tamen  ego 
exspectatione  promissi  tui  moveor  ut  admoneam  te, 
non  ut  fiagitem.  Misi  autem  ad  te  quattuor  admoni- 
tores  non  nimis  verecundos — nosti  enim  profecto  os 
huius  adulescentioris  Academiae — ex  ea  igitur  media 
excitatos  misi,  qui  metuo  ne  te  forte  flagitent,  ego 
autem  mandavi  ut  rogarent.  Exspectabam  omnino 
iam  diu.  meque  sustinebam  ne  ad  te  prius  ipse  quid 
scriberem  quam  aliquid  accepissem,  ut  possem  te 
remunerari  quam  simillimo  munere.  Sed  cum  tu 
tardius  faceres,  id  est  (ut  ego  interpretor)  diligen- 
tius,  teneri  non  potui  quin  coniunctionem  studiorum 
amorisque  nostri  quo  possem  litterarum  genere  decla- 
rarem.     Feci  igitur  sermonem  inter  nos  habitmii  in 

*•  Munus  denotes  specially  a  gladiatorial  show. 

^  \'arro  had  proniised  to  dedicate  to  Cicero  his  treatise 
De  Lingua  Latina,  at  which  he  was  now  working. 

'^  The  four  volumes  of  Academica,  second  edition,  of  which 
the  first  volume  forms  Book  I.  of  the  extant  text. 

^  This  hints  at  the  '  young-mannishness '  and  self-assertion 
of  the  New  Academy. 
40() 


LETTER  DEDICATING  SECOND  EDITION 
TO  VARRO 

ClCERO    TO    VaRRO 

1  EvEN  the  public,  unless  stirred  up  to  do  so,  does  not 
as  a  rule  actually  demand  a  gift,**  although  some- 
body  has  held  out  an  offer  of  one  ;  yet  in  my  case 
eagerness  for  the  present  that  you  promised  ^  prompts 
me  to  send  you,  not  a  demand,  but  a  reminder.  But 
the  four  emissaries  that  I  am  sending  to  remind  you  ^ 
are  not  excessively  modest  ones — for  no  doubt  you  are 
acquainted  vA\S\  the  '  cheek  '  of  this  junior '^  Academy 
— well,  it  is  from  the  very  heart  of  that  School  that 
my  messengers  have  been  summoned ;  and  I  am 
afraid  that  they  may  perhaps  present  a  demand  to 
you,  although  my  instructions  to  them  are  to  make  a 
request.  Anyway  I  have  now  been  a  long  time  wait- 
ing  and  keeping  myself  from  \VTiting  anything  to  you 
on  my  side  before  I  had  received  something  from 
you,  so  as  to  have  the  opportunity  of  making  you  as 
nearly  as  possible  a  repayment  in  kind.  But  as  you 
have  been  acting  rather  slowly,  that  is  (as  I  construe 
it)  rather  carefully,  I  have  been  unable  to  keep 
myself  from  making  pubhc,  in  such  Hterary  form  as 
was  within  my  powers,  the  community  of  studies  and 
of  affection  that  unites  us,  I  have  accordingly  com- 
posed  a  dialogue,  held  between  us  at  my  place  at 

407 


CICERO 

Cumano,  cum  esset  una  Pomponius  ;  tibi  dedi  partes 
Antioehinas,  quas  a  te  probari  intellexisse  mihi  vide- 
bar,  mihi  sumpsi  Philonis.  Puto  fore  ut  cum  legeris 
mirere  nos  id  locutos  esse  inter  nos  quod  numquam 
2  locuti  sumus  ;  sed  nosti  morem  dialogorum.  Posthac 
autem,  mi  Varro,  quam  plurima  si  videtur  et  de 
nobis  inter  nos  ;  sero  fortasse,  sed  superiorum  tem- 
porum  fortuna  rei  publicae  causam  sustineat,  haec 
ipsi  praestare  debemus.  Atque  utinam  quietis  tem- 
poribus  atque  aliquo  si  non  bono  at  saltem  certo  statu 
civitatis  haec  inter  nos  studia  exercere  possemus  ! 
quamquam  tum  quidem  vel  aliae  quaepiam  rationes 
honestas  nobis  et  curas  et  actiones  darent  ;  nunc 
autem  quid  est  sine  his  cur  vivere  veHmus  ?  mihi 
vero  cum  his  ipsis  vix,  his  autem  detractis  ne  vix 
quidem.  Sed  haec  coram  et  saepius.  Migrationem 
et  emptionem  fehciter  evenire  volo,  tuumque  in  ea 
re  consilium  probo.     Cura  ut  valeas. 

"  What  Cicero  refers  to  is  not  recorded. 


408 


ACADEMICA  :  Dedicatory  LE-rrER 

Cumae,  with  Pomponius  as  one  of  the  party  ;  I  have 
cast  you  for  the  part  of  champion  of  Antiochus,  who-^e 
doctrine  I  think  I  have  understood  you  to  approve  of, 
while  I  have  taken  the  role  of  Philo  myself.  When 
you  read  it  I  fancy  you  will  be  surprised  at  our  holding 
a  conversation  that  never  actually  took  place  ;  but 
2  you  know  the  convention  as  to  dialo^ues.  On  some 
later  occasion,  my  dear  Varro,  we  will  if  you  think  fit 
have  a  very  full  talk  together  about  our  personal 
affairs  as  well ;  too  late,  perhaps,  but  let  the  destiny 
of  the  commonwealth  bear  the  responsibility  for 
the  days  that  are  past,  it  is  our  duty  to  answer 
for  the  present.  And  would  that  we  had  the 
power  to  carry  on  these  joint  studies  in  a  period  of 
tranquillity,  and  with  the  affairs  of  state  settled  in 
some  definite  if  not  satisfactory  manner  !  although  in 
that  case  indeed  perhaps  certain  other  interests  would 
aiford  us  honourable  subjects  of  thought  and  honour- 
able  fields  of  action ;  whereas  now  without  our 
present  studies  what  reason  have  we  to  wish  to 
be  alive?  For  my  own  part,  even  with  them  scarcely 
any,  but  if  they  be  taken  from  me,  not  even  scarcely  ! 
But  we  ^\dll  discuss  this  when  we  meet,  and  re- 
peatedly.  I  hope  the  move  and  the  sale  °  are  turning 
out  a  success :  I  approve  of  your  policy  in  that 
business.     Good-bye, 


409 


ACADEMICA 

LIBER  PRIMUS 

(editio  posterior) 

1  I.  In  Cumano  nuper  cum  mecum  Atticus  noster 
esset,  nuntiatum  est  nobis  a  M.  Varrone  venisse  eura 
Roma  pridie  vesperi  et  nisl  de  via  fessus  esset  con- 
tinuo  ad  nos  venturum  fuisse.  Quod  cimi  audisse- 
mus,  nullam  moram  interponendam  putavimus  quin 
videremus  hominem  nobiscum  et  studiis  eisdem  et 
vetustate  amicitiae  coniunctum  ;  itaque  confestim  ad 
eum  ire  perreximus,  paulumque  cum  ab^  eius  villa 
abessemus  ipsum  ad  nos  venientem  vidimus  ;  atque 
illum  complexi  ut  mos  amicorum  est,  satis  eum  longo 

2  intervallo  ad  suam  villamreduximus.  Hic  pauca  primo 
atque  ea  percontantibus  nobis  ecquid  forte  Roma 
novi  ;  tum^  Atticus  "  Omitte  ista,  quae  nec  percon- 
tari  nec  audire  sine  molestia  possumus,  quaeso,"  in- 
quit,  "  et  quaere  potius  ecquid  ipse  novi  ;  silent  enim 
diutius  Musae  Varronis  quam  solebant,  nec  tamen 

^  ab  inseruit  Wesenherg. 
*  tum  inseruit  Reid. 

"  This  Book  as  we  have  it  belongs  to  the  second  edition 
of    Cicero's    work,    and    is    therefore    entitled    Academica 
Posteriora  by  some  editors. 
410 


ACADEMICA 

BOOK  1« 

ANTIOCHUS's  DOGMATISM  V.  PHILO's  *  PROBABILITY  * 

1  I.  Mv  friend  Atticus  was  stayinff  with  me  latelv  at  introduc- 

'  1  ,    r-i  1  '  tion.    Scens 

my  country-place  at  Lumae,  wnen  a  message  came  of  the 
to  us  from  Marcus  Varro's  house  that  he  had  arrived  «iiaiog^ie- 
from  Rome  on  the  evening  of  the  day  before,  and  if 
not  fatigued  from  the  journey  intended  to  come 
straight  on  to  us.  On  hearing  this,  we  thought  that 
no  obstacle  must  intervene  to  delay  our  seeing  a 
person  united  to  us  by  identity  of  studies  as  well  as  by 
old  friendship  ;  so  we  hastily  set  out  to  go  to  him, 
and  were  only  a  short  distance  from  his  country- 
house  when  we  saw  him  coming  towards  us  in  person. 
\Ve  gave  our  Varro  a  friend's  embrace,  and  after  a 
fairly  long  interval  we  escorted  him  back  to  his  own 

2  house.  Here  there  was  first  a  Httle  conversation,  and 
that  arising  out  of  my  asking  whether  Rome  hap- 
pened  to  have  been  doing  anything  new  ;  and  then 
Atticus  said,  "  Do  pray  drop  those  subjects,  about 
which  we  can  neither  ask  questions  nor  hear  the 
answers  without  distress  ;  inquire  of  him  Instead 
whether  he  himself  has  done  anything  new.  For 
Varro's  Muses  have  kept  silent  for  a  longer  time  than 
they  used,  but  all  the  same  my  behef  is  that  your 

^  4J1 


CICERO 

istum  cessare  sed  celare  quae  scribat  existimo." 
"  Minime  vero,"  inquit  ille,  "  intemperantis  enim 
arbitror  esse  scribere  quod  occultari  velit ;  sed  habeo 
opus  magnum  in  manibus,  idque*  iam  pridem ;  ad 
bunc  enim  ipsum  " — me  autem  dicebat — "  quae- 
dam  institui,  quae  et  sunt  magna  sane  et  limantur 

3  a  me  politius."  Et  ego  "  Ista  quidem  "  inquam 
"  Varro,  iam  diu  exspectans  non  audeo  tamen  flagi- 
tare  ;  audivi  enim  e  Libone  nostro  (cuius  nosti 
studium) — nihil  enim  eum  eius  modi  celare  possumus 
— non  te  ea  intermittere  sed  accuratius  tractare  nec 
de  manibus  imiqudm  deponere.  Illud  autem  mihi 
ante  hoc  tempus  numquam  in  mentem  venit  a  te 
requirere,  sed  nunc  postea  quam  sum  ingressus  res 
eas  quas  tecum  simul  didici  mandare  monumentis, 
philosophiamque  veterem  illam  a  Socrate  ortam 
Latinis  litteris  illustrare,  quaero  quid  sit  cur  cum 
multa  scribas  hoc  genus  praetermittas,  praesertim 
cum  et  ipse  in  eo  excellas  et  id  studium  totaque  ea 
res  longe  ceteris  et  studiis  et  artibus  antecedat." 

4  II.  Tima  ille  :  "  Ilem  a  me  saepe  dehberatam  et 
multum  agitatam  requiris  ;  itaque  non  haesitans  re* 
spondebo  sed  ea  dicam  quae  mihi  sunt  in  promptu, 
quod  ista  ipsa  de  re  multum,  ut  dixi,  et  diu  cogitavi. 

^  idque  Christ :  que  vel  quae  codd. 

•  Varro's  De  Lingua  Latina,  see  Introduction  p.  400. 
412 


ACADEMICA,  I.  i.— ii. 

friend  is  not  taking  a  holiday  but  is  hiding  what  he 
writes."  "  Oh  no,  certainly  not,"  said  Varro,  "  for  I 
think  that  to  put  in  writing  what  one  wants  to  be 
kept  hidden  is  sheer  recklessness  ;  but  I  have  got  a 
big  task  in  hand,  and  have  had  for  a  long  time  :  I 
have  begun  on  a  work^  dedicated  to  our  friend  here 
himself  " — meaning  me — "  which  is  a  big  thing  I  can 
assure  you,   and  which  is  getting   a  good   deal  of 

3  touching  up  and  pohshing  at  my  hands."  At  this  I 
said,  "  As  to  that  work  of  yours,  \"arro,  I  have  been 
waiting  for  it  a  long  time  now,  but  all  the  same  I  don't 
venture  to  demand  it ;  for  I  have  heard  (since  we 
cannot  hide  anything  of  that  kind)  from  our  friend 
Libo,  an  enthusiastic  student  as  you  know%  that  you 
are  not  leaving  it  off,  but  are  giving  it  increased 
attention,  and  never  lay  it  out  of  your  hands.  How- 
ever,  there  is  a  question  that  it  has  never  occurred  to 
me  to  put  to  you  before  the  present  moment,  but 
now,  after  I  have  embarked  on  the  task  of  placing 
upon  record  the  doctrines  that  I  have  learnt  in 
common  with  you,  and  of  expounding  in  Latin  hterary 
form  the  famous  old  system  of  philosophy  that  took 
its  rise  from  Socrates,  I  do  put  the  question  why, 
though  you  wTite  a  great  deal,  you  pass  over  this 
class  of  subject,  especially  when  you  yourself  are 
distinguished  in  it,  and  also  when  this  interest  and 
this  whole  subject  far  outstrip  all  other  interests  and 
other  sciences  ?  " 

4  II.  "  The  question  that  you  ask,"  rejoined  Varro,  varro 

"  is  one  which  I  have  often  pondered  and  considered  phuisophl* 
deeply.     And  so  I  will  not  beat  about  the  bush  in  ^ai  author- 
my  reply,  but  will  say  what  at  once  occurs  to  me,  Greeks. 
because  I  have,  as  I  said,  thought  much  and  long 
upon  the  very  point  that  you  raise.    For  as  I  saw  that 
P  413 


CICERO 

Nam  cum  philosophiam  viderem  diligentissime 
Graecis  litteris  explicatam,  existima\i  si  qui  de  nostris 
eius  studio  tenerentur,  si  essent  Graecis  doctrinis 
eruditi,  Graeca  potius  quam  nostra  lecturos  ;  sin  a 
Graecorum  artibus  et  disciplinis  abhorrerent,  ne  haec 
quidem  curaturos  quae  sine  eruditione  Graeca  intel- 
legi  non  possunt ;  itaque  ea  nolui  scribere  quae  nec 
indocti  intellegere  possent  nec  docti  legere  curarent. 

6  Vides  autem  (eadem  enim  ipse  didicisti)  non  posse 
nos  Amafini  aut  Rabiri  similes  esse,  qui  nulla  arte  ad- 
hibita  de  rebus  ante  oculos  positis  vulgari  sermone  dis- 
putant,  nihil  definiunt,  nihil  partiuntur,  nihil  apta  in- 
terrogatione  concludunt,  nullam  denique  artem  esse 
nec  dicendi  nec  disserendi  putant.  Nos  autem  prae- 
ceptis  dialecticorum  et  oratorum  etiam,  quoniam 
utramque  vim  virtutem  esse  nostri  putant,  sic  parentes 
ut  legibus,  verbis  quoque  no\ds  cogimur  uti,quae  docti, 
ut  dixi,  a  Graecis  petere  malent,  indocti  ne  a  nobis 
quidem  accipient,  ut  frustra  omnis  suscipiatur  labor. 

6  lam  vero  physica,  si  Epicurum,  id  est  si  Democritum 
probarem,  possem  scribere  ita  plane  ut  Amafinius ; 
quid  est  enim  magnum,  cum  causas  rerum  efficien- 


"  Epicurean  writers  with  a  large  sale ;  their  works  are 
now  entirely  lost.  Epicurus  himself  decried  the  use  of  tech- 
nical  language  in  philosophy.  The  speaker  here  touches 
on  the  three  accepted  departments  of  philosophy  in  their 
estabhshed  order,  Logic,  Physics,  Ethics,  which  study  re- 
spectively  the  questions,  how  we  know  the  facts  of  the 
world,  what  those  facts  are,  and  consequently  what  conduct 
will  secure  our  welfare  ?  '  Physics  '  for  the  ancients  has  not 
the  hmited  sense  that  the  term  bears  now,  but  denotes  the 
whole  of  Natural  Science,  including  Biology,  which  is  indeed 
specially  suggested  by  the  term,  as  <pvecdaL  often  means  '  to 
grow,'  of  a  hving  organism. 

*  Interrogatio  is  a  synonym  for  ratio,  and  renders  ipibrrjfjia, 

414 


ACADEMICA,  I.  ii. 

philosophy  had  been  most  carefuUy  expounded  in 
Greek  treatises,  I  judged  that  any  persons  from  our 
nation  that  felt  an  interest  in  the  subject,  if  they  were 
learned  in  the  teachings  of  the  Greeks,  would  sooner 
read  Greek  \\Titings  than  ours,  and  if  on  the  other 
hand  they  shrank  from  the  sciences  and  systems  of 
the  Greeks,  they  would  not  care  even  for  philo- 
sophy,  which  cannot  be  understood  without  Greek 
learning  :  and  therefore  I  was  unwiUing  to  WTite 
what  the  unlearned  would  not  be  able  to  understand 
and  the  learned  would  not  take  the  trouble  to  read. 

5  But  you  are  aware  (for  you  have  passed  through  the  Logio 
same  course  of  study  yourself)  that  we  Academics 
cannot  be  hke  Amafinius  or  Rabirius,"  who  discuss 
matters  that  he  open  to  the  view  in  ordinary  language, 
\\ithout  employing  any  technicahty  and  entirely  dis- 
pensing  wdth  definition  and  division  and  neat  syllo- 
gistic  proof,^  and  who  in  fact  beheve  that  no  science 

of  rhetoric  or  logic  exists.  But  we  for  our  part  while 
obeying  the  rules  of  the  logicians  and  of  the  orators 
also  as  if  they  were  laws,  for  our  school  considers 
each  of  these  faculties  a  merit,  are  compelled  to 
employ  novel  terms  as  well,  for  which  the  learned,  as 
I  said,  will  prefer  to  go  to  the  Greeks,  while  the  un- 
learned  will  not  accept  them  even  from  us,  so  that 

6  aU  our  toil  will  be  undertaken  in  vain.      Then   as  plfsIob, 
for  natural  philosophy,  if  I  accepted  the  system  of 
Epicurus,  that  is  of  Democritus,  I  could  write  about 

it  as  lucidly  as  Amafinius ;  for  when  once  you  have 
abohshed  causation,  in  the  sense  of  efficient  causes, 

properly  denoting  an  argument  developed  in  a  series  of 
questions,  but  also  used  for  any  form  of  proof,  d7r6- 
Set^ij.  Concludere =(jv\\oyi'^€adai^  denoting  logical  inference, 
and  specially  deduction. 

415 


CICERO 

tiiim^  sustuleris,  de  corpusculorum  (ita  enim  appellat 
atomos)  concursione  fortuita  loqui  ?  Nostra  tu  phy- 
sica  nosti,  quae  cum  contineantur  ex  efFectione  et  ex 
materia  ea  quam  fingit  et  format  effectio,  adhibenda 
etiam  geometria  est ;  quam  quibusnam  quisquam 
enuntiare  verbis  aut  quem  ad  intellegendum  poterit 
adducere  ?  Haec^  ipsa  de  vita  et  moribus  et  de 
expetendis  fugiendisque  rebus  illi  simpliciter,  pecudis 
enim  et  hominis  idem  bonum  esse  censent,  apud 
nostros  autem^  non  ignoras  quae  sit  et  quanta  subtili- 

7  tas  :  sive  enim  Zenonem  sequare,  magnum  est 
efficere  ut  quis  intellegat  quid  sit  illud  verum  et 
simplex  bonum  quod  non  possit  ab  honestate  seiungi, 
quod  bonum  quale  sit  omnino  negat  Epicurus  se^  sine 
voluptatibus  sensum  moventibus  ne  suspicari  qui- 
dem^ ;  si  vero  Academiam  veterem  persequamur, 
quam  nos,  ut  scis,  probamus,  quam  erit  illa  acute  ex- 
plicanda  nobis  !  quam  argute,  quam  obscure  etiam 
contra  Stoicos  disserendum  !  Totum  igitur  illud 
philosophiae  studium  mihi  quidem  ipse  sumo  et  ad 
vitae  constantiam  quantum  possum  et  ad  delecta- 
tionem  animi,  nec  ullum  arbitror,  ut  apud  Platonem 
est,  maius  aut  melius  a  dis  datum  munus  homini. 

8  Sed  meos  amicos  in  quibus  id^  est  studium  in  Grae- 
ciam  mitto,  id  est,  ad  Graecos  ire  iubeo,  ut  ex'  fonti- 
bus  potius  hauriant  quam  rivulos  consectentur  ;  quae 

^  efficientes  Lambinus. 

*  lacunam  ante  haec  codd.  :  <ecce>  haec  Reid. 

^  autem  Lamhinus  :  enim  codd. 

*  se  inseruit  Lamhinus. 

•  ne  suspicari  quidem  Durand  :   nec  suspicari  codd. 

"  id  inseruit  Durand. 

'  ex  Halm  :  ea  a  codd. 

*  i.e.^  (with  arithmetic)  the  whole  of  mathematics  so  far  a3 
then  discovered.  '  Timaeus  47  b. 

416 


ACADEMICA,  I.  ii. 

what  is  thcre  remarkable  in  talking  about  the  acci- 
dental  coUision  of  minute  bodies — that  is  his  name 
for  atoms  ?  The  natural  science  of  my  school 
you  know ;  being  a  system  that  combines  the 
efficient  force  and  the  matter  \vhich  is  fashioned  and 
shaped  by  the  efficient  force,  it  must  also  bring  iii 
geometry  ^  ;  but  what  terminology,  pray,  will  any- 
body  have  to  use  in  explaining  geometry,  or  whom 
^^ill  he  be  able  to  bring  to  understand  it  ?  Even  this  Ethics. 
department  of  ethics  and  the  subject  of  moral  choice 
and  avoidance  that  school  handles  quite  simply,  for 
it  frankly  identifies  the  good  of  man  with  the  good 
of  cattle,  but  what  a  vast  amount  of  what  minute 
precision  the  teachers  of  our  school  display  is  not 

7  unknown  to  you.  For  if  one  is  a  follower  of  Zeno,  it 
is  a  great  task  to  make  anybody  understand  the 
meaning  of  the  real  and  simple  good  that  is  in- 
separable  from  morahty,  because  Epicurus  entirely 
denies  that  he  can  even  guess  what  sort  of  a  thing 
good  is  without  pleasures  that  excite  the  sense  ;  but 
if  we  should  follow  the  lead  of  the  Old  Academy,  the 
school  that  I  as  you  know  approve,  how  acutely  we 
shall  have  to  expound  that  system  I  How  subtly,  how 
profoundly  even,  we  shall  have  to  argue  against  the 
Stoics !  Accordingly  for  my  own  part  I  adopt  the 
great  pursuit  of  philosophy  in  its  entirety  both  (so 
far  as  I  am  able)  as  a  guiding  principle  of  Hfe  and  as 
an  intellectual  pleasure,  and  I  agree  with  the  dictum 
of  Plato  ^  that  no  greater  and  better  gift  has  been 

8  bestowed  by  the  gods  upon  mankind.  But  my  friends 
who  possess  an  interest  in  this  study  I  send  to  Greece, 
that  is,  I  bid  them  go  to  the  Greeks,  so  that  they  may 
draw  from  the  fountain-heads  rather  than  seek  out 
mere  rivulets  ;    while  doctrines  which  nobody  had 

417 


CICERO 

autem  nemo  adliuc  docuerat  nec  erat  unde  studiosi 
scire  possent,  ea  quantum  potui  (nihil  enim  magno- 
pere  meorum  miror)  feci  ut  essent  nota  nostris  ;  a 
Graecis  enim  peti  non  poterant  ac  post  L.  Aelii  nostri 
occasum  ne  a  Latinis  quidem.  Et  tamen  in  illis 
veteribus  nostris  quae  Menippum  imitati,  non  inter- 
pretati,  quadam  hilaritate  conspersimus,  multa  ad- 
mixta  ex  intima  philosophia,  multa  dicta  dialectice  ; 
quae  cum^  facihus  minus  docti  intellegerent  iucundi- 
tate  quadam  ad  legendum  invitati^  in  laudationibus, 
in  his  ipsis  antiquitatum  prooemiis  philosophis 
scribere  voluimus,  si  modo  consecuti  sumus." 
9  in.  Tum  ego,  "  Sunt,"  inquam,  "  ista,  Varro  ; 
nam  nos  in  nostra  urbe  peregrinantis  errantisque 
tamquam  hospites  tui  hbri  quasi  domum  reduxerunt, 
ut  possemus  ahquando  qui  et  ubi  essemus  agnoscere. 
Tu  aetatem  patriae,  tu  discriptiones  temporum,  tu 
sacrorum  iura,  tu  sacerdotum,^  tu  domesticam,  tu 
belhcam  disciphnam,  tu  sedem  regionum,  locorum, 
tu  omnium  divinarum  humanarumque  rerum  nomina, 
genera,  officia,  causas  aperuisti,  plurimumque  idem 
poetis  nostris  omninoque  Latinis  et  htteris  luminis  et 
verbis  attuhsti,  atque  ipse  varium  et  elegans  omni  fere 
numero  poema  fecisti,  philosophiamque  multis  locis 

1  cum  Reid  :  quo  codd. 

2  hic  interponit  lacunam  Casauhon. 

3  sacerdotum  <munera>  Lambinus. 


"  Only  fragments  are  extant  of  Varro's  Menippean  Satires. 
Menippus  was  a  Cynic  philosopher  and  satirist  hving  at 
Gadara  in  the  middle  of  the  second  century  b.c. 

^  i.e.^  Ethics,  see  p.  414  note  a. 
418 


ACADEMICA,  I.  ii.— iii. 

been  teaching  up  till  now,  and  for  which  there  was 
nobody  available  from  whom  those  interested  could 
learn  them,  I  have  done  as  much  as  lay  in  my  power 
(for  I  have  no  great  admiration  for  any  of  my  own 
achievements)  to  make  them  known  to  our  fellow- 
countrymen  ;  for  these  doctrines  could  not  be  ob- 
tained  from  the  Greeks,  nor  from  the  Latins  either 
since  the  demise  of  our  countryman  Lucius  Aehus. 
And  nevertheless  in  those  old  writers  of  our  country 
whom  in  my  imitation  "  (it  is  not  a  translation)  of 
Menippus  I  treated  with  a  certain  amount  of  ridicule, 
there  is  a  copious  admixture  of  elements  derived  from 
the  inmost  depths  of  philosophy,^  and  many  utter- 
ances  in  good  logical  form  ;  and  though  in  my  funeral 
orations  these  were  more  easily  intelHgible  to  less 
learned  readers  if  they  were  tempted  to  peruse  them 
by  a  certain  attractiveness  of  style,  when  we  come  to 
the  prefaces  to  my  Antiquiiies,  in  these  my  aim  was, 
if  only  I  attained  it,  to  write  for  philosophers." 
9  IIL  "  What  you  say,  Varro,  is  true,"  I  rejoined,  Cicero 
"  for  we  were  wandering  and  straying  about  Hke  lIud'^^ 
visitors  in  our  own  city,  and  your  books  led  us,  so  to  phiiosophy. 
speak,  right  home,  and  enabled  us  at  last  to  reahze 
who  and  where  we  were.  You  have  revealed  the  age 
of  our  native  city,  the  chronology  of  its  history,  the 
laws  of  its  religion  and  its  priesthood,  its  civil  and  its 
military  institutions,  the  topography  of  its  districts 
and  its  sites,  the  terminology,  classification  and  moral 
and  rational  basis  of  all  our  rehgious  and  secular 
institutions,  and  you  have  hkewise  shed  a  flood  of 
hght  upon  our  poets  and  generally  on  Latin  hterature 
and  the  Latin  language,  and  you  liave  yourself  com- 
posed  graceful  poetry  of  various  styles  in  almost  every 
metre,  and  have  sketched  an  outUne  of  philosophy 

419 


CICERO 

incohasti,ad  impellendumsatis,ad  edocendum  parum. 

10  Causam  autem  probabilem  tu  quidem  adfers,  aut 
enim  Graeca  legere  malent  qui  erunt  eruditi,  aut  ne 
haec  quidem  qui  illa  nesciunt ;  sed  da  mihi  nunc — 
satisne  probas  ?  Immo  vero  et  haec  qui  illa  non 
poterunt  et  qui  Graeca  poterunt  non  contemnent  sua. 
Quid  enim  causae  est  cur  poetas  Latinos  Graecis 
Htteris  eruditi  legant,  philosophos  non  legant  ?  An 
quia  delectat  Ennius,  Pacuvius,  Attius,  multi  alii,  qui 
non  verba  sed  vim  Graecorum  expresserunt  poetarum? 
Quanto  magis  philosophi  delectabunt,  si,  ut  illi 
Aeschylum,  Sophoclem,  Euripidem,  sic  hi  Platonem 
imitentur,  Aristotelem,  Theophrastum  ?  Oratores 
quidem  laudari  video,  si  qui  e  nostris  Hyperidem  sint 

11  aut  Demosthenem  imitati.  Ego  autem  (dicam  enim 
ut  res  est),  dum  me  ambitio,  dum  honores,  dum 
causae,  dum  rei  publicae  non  solum  cura  sed  quaedam 
etiam  procuratio  multis  officiis  implicatum  et  con- 
strictum  tenebat,  haec  inclusa  habebam,  et  ne  obsole- 
scerent  renovabam  cum  licebat  legendo  ;  nunc  vero 
et  fortunae  gravissimo  percussus  vulnere  et  admini- 
stratione  rei  publicae  liberatus  doloris  medicinam  a 
philosophia  peto  et  oti  oblectationem  hanc  honestissi- 

"  The  death  of  his  daughter  Tullia. 
420 


ACADEMICA,  I.  iii. 

in  many  departments  that  is  enough  to  stimulate 
the    student    though    not    enough   to   complete   his 

10  instruction.  But  though  it  is  true  that  the  case  you 
bring  forward  has  some  probabihty,  as  accomphshed 
students  on  the  one  hand  will  prefer  to  read  the 
Greek  wTitings,  and  on  the  other  hand  people  who 
do  not  know  those  will  not  read  these  either,  still, 
tell  me  now — do  you  quite  prove  your  point  ?  The 
truth  rather  is  that  both  those  who  cannot  read  the 
Greek  books  will  read  these  and  those  who  can  read 
the  Greek  will  not  overlook  the  works  of  their  own 
nation.  For  what  reason  is  there  why  accompUshed 
Grecians  should  read  Latin  poets  and  not  read  Latin 
philosophers  ?  Is  it  because  they  get  pleasure  from 
Ennius,  Pacuvius,  Accius  and  many  others,  who  have 
reproduced  not  the  words  but  the  meaning  of  the 
Greek  poets  ?  How  much  more  pleasure  will  they 
get  from  philosophers,  if  these  imitate  Plato,  Aristotle 
and  Theophrastus  in  the  same  way  as  those  poets 
imitated  Aeschylus,  Sophocles  and  Euripides  ?  At 
all  events  I  see  that  any  of  our  orators  that  have 
imitated    Hyperides    or    Demosthenes    are    praised. 

11  But  for  my  own  part  (for  I  will  speak  frankly),  so  long 
as  I  was  held  entangled  and  fettered  by  the  multi- 
farious  duties  of  anibition,  ofRce,  htigation,  pohtical 
interests  and  even  some  poUtical  responsibiUty,  I  used 
to  keep  these  studies  within  close  bounds,  and  reUed 
merely  on  reading,  when  I  had  the  opportunity, 
to  revive  them  and  prevent  their  fading  away  ;  but 
now  that  I  have  been  smitten  by  a  grievously  heavy 
blow  "  of  fortune  and  also  released  from  taking  part 
in  the  government  of  the  country,  I  seek  from  philo- 
sophy  a  cure  for  my  grief  and  I  deem  this  to  be 
the  most  honourable  mode  of  amusing  my  leisure. 

421 


CICERO 

mam  iudico.  Aut  enim  huic  aetati  hoc  maxime  aptum 
est,  aut  iis  rebus  si  quas  dignas  laude  gessimus  hoc 
m  primis  consentaneum,  aut  etiam  ad  nostros  cives 
erudiendos  nihil  utiUus,  aut  si  haec  ita  non  sunt,  nihil 

12  ahud  video  quod  agere  possimus.  Brutus  quidem 
noster,  excellens  omni  genere  laudis,  sic  philosophiam 
Latinis  Htteris  persequitur  nihil  ut  iisdem  de  rebus 
Graeca  desideres,^  et  eandem  quidem  sententiam 
sequitur  quam  tu,  nam  Aristum  Athenis  audivit  aH- 
quamdiu,  cuius  tu  fratrem  Antiochum.  Quam  ob  rem 
da,  quaeso,  te  huic  etiam  generi  Utterarum." 

13  IV.  Tum  ille  "  Istuc  quidem  considerabo,  nec  vero 
sine  te.  Sed  de  te  ipso  quid  est,"  inquit,  "  quod 
audio  ?  "  "  Quanam,"  inquam,  "  de  re  ?  "  "  ReUc- 
tam  a  te  veterem  Academiam,^  "  inquit,  "  tractari 
autem  novam."  "  Quid  ergo  ?  "  inquam,  "  Antiocho 
id  magis  Ucuerit  nostro  famiUari,  remigrare  in  domum 
veterem  e  nova,  quam  nobis  in  novam  e  vetere  ? 
Certe  enim  recentissima  quaeque  sunt  correcta  et 
emendata  maxime  ;  quamquam  Antiochi  magister 
Philo,  magnus  vir  ut  tu  existimas  ipse,  negat  in  Ubris, 
quod  coram  etiam  ex  ipso  audiebamus,  duas  Aca- 
demias  esse,  erroremque  eorum  qui  ita  putarunt 
coarguit."  "  Est,"  inquit,  "  ut  dicis,  sed  ignorare 
te  non  arbitror  quae  contra  ea^  Philonis  Antiochus 

14  scripserit."     "  Immo  vero  et  ista  et  totam  veterem 

^  Aldus  :  Graecia  desideret  codd. 

*  Academiam  Bentley :  illam  Madvig :  iam  codd. 

^  ea  inseruit  Reid. 

<»  Succeeded  Antiochus  as  head  of  the  Old  Academy. 
^  i.e.i  from  Atticus. 
422 


ACADEMICA,  I.  iii.— iv. 

For  this  occupation  is  the  one  most  suited  to  my  age  ; 
or  it  is  the  one  more  in  harmony  than  any  other  with 
such  praiseworthy  achievements  as  I  can  claim  ;  or 
else  it  is  the  most  useful  means  of  educating  our 
fellow-citizens  also  ;  or,  if  these  things  are  not  the 
case,  I  see  no  other  occupation  that  is  within  our 

12  power.  At  all  events  our  friend  Brutus,  who  is 
eminent  for  every  kind  of  distinction,  is  so  successful 
an  exponent  of  philosophy  in  a  Latin  dress  that  one 
could  not  feel  the  least  need  for  Greek  writings  on 
the  same  subjects,  and  indeed  he  is  an  adherent  of 
the  same  doctrine  as  yourself,  as  for  a  considerable 
time  he  heard  the  lectures  of  Aristus  °  at  Athens, 
whose  brother  Antiochus  you  attended.  Pray  there- 
fore  devote  yourself  to  this  field  of  hterature  also." 

13  IV.  "  I  Mill  deal  with  your  point,"  he  rejoined, 
although  I  shall  require  your  assistance.     But  what 

is  this  news  that  I  hear  ^  about  yourself  ?  " 

"What  about,  exactly  ?  "  said  I.     "  That  you  have  varro 
abandoned  the  Old  Academy,  and  are  dealing  ^\ith  ^Howing 
the  New."     "  What  then  ?  "  I  said.     "  Is  our  friend  defends  oid 
Antiochus  to  have  had  more  hberty  to  return  from  f^^^^^^^ 
the  new  school  to  the  old,  than  we  are  to  have  to  New ;  Cicero 
move  out  of  the  old  one  into  the  new  ?     Why,  there  phiufmain- 
is  no  question  that  the  neM'est  theories  are  alwa^^s  ^j^i"^  ^^^^ 
most  correct  and  free  from  error  ;    although  Philo, 
Antiochus's   master,   a  great  man   as   you   yourself 
judge  him,  makes  an  assertion  in  his  books  which  we 
used  also  to  hear  from  his  own  hps, — he  says  that 
there  are  not  two  Academies,  and  proves  that  those  who 
thought  so  were  mistaken,"  "What  you  say  is  true," 
said  he,  "  but  I  think  that  you  are  not  unacquainted 
with  what  Antiochus  MTote  to  combat  those  state- 

14  ments  of  Philo."     "  On  the  contrary,  I  should  hke 

423 


CICERO 

Academiam,  a  qua  absum  iam  diu,  renovari  a  te,  nisi 
molestum  est,  velim ;  et  simul  adsidamus,"  inquam, 
"si  videtur."  "  Sane  istud  quidem,"  inquit,  "  sum 
enim  admodum  infirmus  ;  sed  \ddeamus  idemne 
Attico  placeat  fieri  a  me  quod  te  velle  video."  "  Mihi 
vero,"  ille,  "  quid  est  enim  quod  malim  quam  ex 
Antiocho  iam  pridem  audita  recordari,  et  simul  videre 
satisne  ea  commode  dici  possint  Latine  ?  "  Quae 
cum  essent^  dicta,  in  conspectu  consedimus  omnes.^ 

15  Tum  Varro  ita  exorsus  est  :  "  Socrates  mihi  vide- 
tur,  id  quod  constat  inter  omnes,  primus  a  rebus 
occultis  et  ab  ipsa  natura  involutis,  in  quibus  omnes 
ante  eum  philosophioccupatifuerunt,avocavissephilo- 
sophiam  et  ad  vitam  communem  adduxisse,  ut  de 
virtutibus  et  vitiis  omninoque  de  bonis  rebus  et  malis 
quaereret,  caelestia  autem  vel  procul  esse  a  nostra 
cognitione  censeret  vel,  si  maxime  cognita  essent, 

16  nihil  tamen  ad  bene  vivendum.  Hic  in  omnibus  fere 
sermonibus  qui  ab  iis  qui  illum  audierunt  perscripti 
varie  copioseque  sunt  ita  disputat  ut  nihil  adfirmet 
ipse,  refellat  alios,  nihil  se  scire  dicat  nisi  id  ipsum, 
eoque  praestare  ceteris  quod  illi  quae  nesciant  scire 
se  putent,  ipse  se  nihil  scire,  id  unum  sciat,  ob  eamque 
rem  se  arbitrari  ab  Apolline  omnium  sapientissimum 


^  sint  codd.  plerique  :  deUnt  edd.  plerique, 
'  oinnes  delet  Reid  {metri  tollendi  causa), 
424 


ACADEMICA,  I.  iv. 

you,  if  you  do  not  mind,  to  recapitulate  the  argu- 
ments  to  whicli  you  refer,  and  also  the  wholc  theory 
of  the  Old  Academy,  with  which  I  have  been  out  of 
touch  for  a  long  while  now  ;  and  at  the  same  time," 
I  said,  "  let  us  if  you  please  sit  down  for  our  talk." 
"  Let  us  sit  down  by  all  means,"  he  said,  "  for  I  am 
in  rather  weak  health.  But  let  us  see  whether 
Atticus  would  hke  me  to  undertake  the  same  task 
that  I  see  you  want  me  to."  "  To  be  sure  I  should," 
said  Atticus,  "  for  what  could  I  hke  better  than  to 
recall  to  memory  the  doctrines  that  I  heard  long  ago 
from  Antiochus,  and  at  the  same  time  to  see  if  they 
can  be  satisfactorily  expressed  in  Latin  ?  "  After 
these  remarks  we  took  our  seats  in  full  view  of  one 
another. 

15  Then  Varro  began  as  follows  :  "  It  is  my  view,  and  varro 

it  is  universally  agreed,  that  Socrates  was  the  first  ^ift^iocWs 
person  M'ho  summoned  philosophy  away  from  mys-  dogmatism 
teries  veiled  in  concealment  by  nature  herself,  upon  (i)  histori- 
which  all  philosophers  before  him  had  been  enffaffed,  ^,^^  '■  ^^_, 
and  led  it  to  the  subject  of  ordinary  hfe,  in  order  to  from 
investigate  the  virtues  and  vices,  and  good  and  evil  ^^"^rates. 
generally,  and  to  reaUze  that  heavenly  matters  are 
either  remote  from  our  knowledge  or  else,  however 
fully  known,  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  good  hfe. 

16  The  method  of  discussion  pursued  by  Socrates  in 
almost  all  the  dialogues  so  diversely  and  so  fully  re- 
corded  by  his  hearers  is  to  affirm  nothing  himself  but 
to  refute  others,  to  assert  that  he  knows  nothing 
except  the  fact  of  his  own  ignorance,  and  that  he  sur- 
passed  all  other  people  in  that  they  think  they  know 
things  that  they  do  not  know  but  he  himself  thinks 
he  knows  nothing,  and  that  he  beHeved  this  to  have 
been  the  reason  why  Apollo  declared  him  to  be  the 

4.25 


CICERO 

esse  dictum  quod  haec  esset  una  omnis^  sapientia,  non 
arbitrari  se  scire  quod  nesciat.  Quae  cum  diceret 
constanter  et  in  ea  sententia  permaneret,  omnis  eius 
oratio  tamen^  in  virtute  laudanda  et  in  hominibus 
ad  virtutis  studium  cohortandis  consumebatur,  ut 
e  Socraticorum  Ubris  maximeque  Platonis  intellegi 

17  potest.  Platonis  autem  auctoritate,  qui  varius  et 
multiplex  et  copiosus  fuit,  una  et  consentiens  duobus 
vocabuhs  philosophiae  forma  instituta  est,  Academi- 
corum  et  Peripateticorum,  qui  rebus  congruentes 
nominibus  differebant  ;  nam  cum  Speusippum  sororis 
filium  Plato  philosophiae  quasi  heredem  reUquisset, 
duos  autem  praestantissimo  studio  atque  doctrina, 
Xenocratem  Calchedonium  et  Aristotelem  Stagiriten, 
qui  erant  cum  Aristotele  Peripatetici  dicti  sunt  quia 
disputabant  inambulantes  in  Lycio,  iUi  autem  quia^ 
Platonis  instituto  in  Academia,  quod  est  alterum 
gymnasium,  coetus  erant  et  sermones  habere  sohti,  e 
loci  vocabulo  nomen  habuerunt.  Sed  utrique  Platonis 
ubertate  completi  certam  quandam  disciphnae  formu- 
lam  composuerunt  et  eam  quidem  plenam  ac  refer- 
tam,  illam  autem  Socraticam  dubitanter*  de  omnibus 
rebus  et  nulla  adfirmatione  adhibita  consuetudinem 
disserendi  reliquerunt.  Ita  facta  est,  quod  minime 
Socrates  probabat,  ars  quaedam  philosophiae  etrerum 

18  ordo   et  descriptio  discipUnae.     Quae   quidem   erat 

^  hominis  Lambinus.  ^  Gruter  :  tam  codd. 

^  quia  ?  Reid  :  qui  a,  qui  codd. 

*  Baiter  :  dubitantem,  dubitationem  codd. 

«  Plato,  Apology,  21  a. 

^  Cicero  is  translating  StdSoxos. 

*  At   the  entrance   to   the  Bosporus,  nearly  opposite  to 
Byzantium.  <*  On  the  coast  of  Macedon. 

*  This    famous    Athenian    gymnasium    had    a    much- 
frequented  peripatos  or  promenade. 

426 


ACADEMICA,  I.  iv. 

^visest  of  all  men,*^  because  all  wisdom  consists  solely 
in  not  thinkino;  that  you  know  what  you  do  not  know. 
He  used  to  say  this  regularly,  and  remained  firm  in 
this  opinion,  yet  nevertheless  the  whole  of  his  dis- 
courses  were  spent  in  praising  virtue  and  in  exhorting 
mankind  to  the  zealous  pursuit  of  virtue,  as  can  be 
gathered  from  the  books  of  members  of  the  Socratic 

17  school,  and  particularly  from  those  of  Plato.  But 
originating  with  Plato,  a  thinker  of  manifold  variety 
and  fertiUty,  there  was  estabhshed  a  philosophy  that, 
though  it  had  two  appellations,  was  really  a  single 
uniform  system,  that  of  the  Academic  and  the  Peri- 
patetic  schools,  which  while  agreeing  in  doctrine 
differed  in  name  ;  for  Plato  left  his  sister's  son 
Speusippus  as  '  heir  '  ^  to  his  system,  but  two  pupils 
of  outstanding  zeal  and  learning,  Xenocrates,  a 
native  of  Calchedon,^  and  Aristotle,  a  native  of 
Stagira  ^  ;  and  accordingly  the  associates  of  Aris- 
totle  were  called  the  Peripatetics,  because  they  used 
to  debate  while  walking  in  the  Lyceum,^  while  the 
others,  because  they  carried  on  Plato's  practice  of 
assembUng  and  conversing  in  the  Academy,  which  is 
another  gymnasium,  got  their  appellation  from  the 
name  of  the  place.  But  both  schools  drew  plentiful 
supphes  from  Plato's  abundance,  and  both  framed  a 
definitely  formulated  rule  of  doctrine,  and  this  fully 
and  copiously  set  forth,  whereas  they  abandoned  the 
famous  Socratic  custom  of  discussing  everything  in 
a  doubting  manner  and  without  the  admission  of  any 
positive  statement.  Thus  was  produced  something 
that  Socrates  had  been  in  the  habit  of  reprobating 
entirely,  a  definite  science  of  philosophy,  with  a 
regular  arrangement  of  subjects  and  a  formulated 

18  system  of  doctrine.     At  the  outset  it  is  true  this  was 

427 


CICERO 

primo  duobus,  ut  dixi,  nominibus  una,  nihil  enim 
inter  Peripateticos  et  illam  veterem  Academiam 
differebat  :  abundantia  quadam  ingenii  praestabat, 
ut  mihi  quidem  videtur,  Aristoteles,  sed  idem  fons 
erat  utrisque  et  eadem  rerum  expetendarum  fugien- 
darumque  partitio. 

V.  "  Sed  quid  ago  ?  "  inquit  "  aut  sumne  sanus  qui 
haec  vos  doceo  ?  nam  etsi  non  sus  Minervam,  ut 
aiunt,  tamen  inepte  quisquis  Minervam  docet."  Tum 
Atticus,  "  Tu  vero,"  inquit,  "  perge,  Varro  ;  valde 
enim  amo  nostra  atque  nostros,  meque  ista  delectant 
cum  Latine  dicuntur  et  isto  modo."  "  Quid  me," 
inquam,  "  putas,  qui  philosophiam  iam  professus  sim 
populo  nostro  exhibiturum  ?  "  "  Pergamus  igitur," 
19  inquit,  "  quoniam  placet.  Fuit  ergo  iam  accepta  a 
Platone  philosophandi  ratio  triplex,  una  de  vita  et 
moribus,  altera  de  natura  et  rebus  occultis,  tertia 
de  disserendo  et  quid  verum,^  quid  falsum,  quid 
rectum  in  oratione  pravumve,  quid  consentiens, 
quid  repugnans  esset^  iudicando.  Ac  primum  illam 
partem  bene  vivendi  a  natura  petebant^  eique  paren- 
dum  esse  dicebant,  neque  ulla  aUa  in  re  nisi  in 
natura  quaerendum  esse  illud  summum  bonum  quo 
omnia  referrentur,  constituebantque  extremum  esse 
rerum  expetendarum  et  finera  bonorum  adeptum 
esse    omnia  e  natura   et  animo  et  corpore  et  vita. 

1  verum  et  codd.  plurimi :  verum  sit  Reid. 

*  repugnans  esset  Miiller  :  repugnet  codd. 

^  repetebant  Reid. 

<»  A  proverb  of  Greek  origin  ;  the  story  on  which  it  was 
based  does  not  seem  to  be  recorded.  Theocritus  has  it  in  a 
rather  different  form,  Cs  ttot'  ' Xd-qvaiav  ^piv  i^piaev  (5.  23), 
suggesting  perhaps  a  challenge  to  a  competition  in  music. 

^*  t.«.,  the  original  Academy. 

*   Vita  denotes  e/criy  dyadd,  '  external  goods.* 
428 


ACADEMICA,  I.  iv.— v. 

a  single  system  with  two  names,  as  I  said,  for  there 
was  no  difference  between  the  Peripatetics  and  the 
Old  Academy  of  those  days.  Aristotle  excelled,  as  I 
at  all  events  think,  in  a  certain  copiousness  of  in- 
tellect,  but  both  schools  drew  from  the  same  source, 
and  both  made  the  same  classification  of  things  as 
desirable  and  to  be  avoided. 

V.  "  But  what  am  I  about  ?  "  he  said,  "  am  I  quite 
all  there,  who  teach  these  things  to  you  ?  Even  if  it 
is  not  a  case  of  the  proverbial  pig  teaching  Minerva,** 
anyway  whoever  teaches  Minerva  is  doing  a  silly 
thing."  **  Do  pray  go  on,  Varro,"  rejoined  Atticus, 
"  for  I  love  our  hterature  and  our  fellow-countrymen 
profoundly,  and  I  dehght  in  the  doctrines  of  your 
school  when  set  forth  in  Latin  and  as  you  are  setting 
them  forth."  "  What  do  you  suppose  that  I  feel 
about  it,"  said  I,  "  seeing  that  I  have  already  offered 
myself  as  an  exponent  of  philosophy  to  our  nation  ?  " 
"  Well  then,  let  us  proceed,"  said  he,  "  as  we  are  (2)  Anti- 
19  agreed.  There  already  existed,  then,  a  threefold  EUiics : 
scheme  of  philosophy  inherited  from  Plato  :  one  J°g°^^\"^ 
division  dealt  with  conduct  and  morals,  the  second  bodUy  and 
with  the  secrets  of  nature,  the  third  with  dialectic  ^^^*^-^^^- 
and  with  judgement  of  truth  and  falsehood,  correct- 
ness  and  incorrectness,  consistency  and  inconsistency, 
in  rhetorical  discourse.  And  fur  the  first  of  these 
sections,  the  one  deahng  with  the  right  conduct 
of  hfe,  they  ^  went  for  a  starting-point  to  nature,  and 
declared  that  her  orders  must  be  foUowed,  and  that 
the  chief  good  which  is  the  ultimate  aim  of  all  things 
is  to  be  sought  in  nature  and  in  nature  only  ;  and 
they  laid  it  down  that  to  have  attained  complete 
accordance  with  nature  in  mind,  body  and  estate  ^ 
is  the  limit  of  things  desirable  and  the  End  of  goods. 

429 


CICERO 

Corporis  autem  alia  ponebant  esse  in  toto,  alia  in 
partibus,  valetudinem  vires  pulchritudinem  in  toto, 
in  partibus  autem  sensus  integros  et  praestantiam 
aliquam  partium  singularum,  ut  in  pedibus  celeri- 
tatem,  vim  in  manibus,  claritatem  in  voce,  in  lingua 

20  etiam  explanatam  vocum  impressionem.  Animi 
autem  quae  essent  ad  comprehendendam  virtutem 
idonea,  eaque  ab  eis  in  naturam  et  mores  divide- 
bantur  :  naturae  celeritatem  ad  discendum  et  me- 
moriam  dabant,  quorum  utrumque  mentis  esset  pro- 
prium  et  ingenii,  morum  autem  putabant  studia  esse 
et  quasi  consuetudinem,  quam  partim  adsiduitate 
exercitationis,  partim  ratione  formabant,  in  quibus 
erat  ipsa  philosophia.  In  qua  quod  incohatum  est 
neque  absolutum  progressio  quaedam  ad  virtutem 
appellatur,  quod  autem  absolutum,  id  est  virtus,  quasi 
perfectio  naturae  omniumque  rerum  quas  in  animis 

21  ponunt  una  res  optima.  Ergo  haec  animorum.  Vitae 
autem  (id  enim  erat  tertium)  adiuncta  esse  dicebant 
quae  ad  virtutis  usum  valerent.  Nam  virtus  in  animi 
bonis  et  in  corporis  cernitur  et  in  quibusdam  quae 
non  tam  naturae  quam  beatae  vitae  adiuncta  sunt. 
Hominem  esse  censebant  quasi  partem  quandam 
civitatis  et  universi  generis  humani,  eumque  esse 
coniunctum  cum  hominibus  humana  quadam  societate. 
Ac  de  summo  quidem  atque  naturah  bono  sic  agunt ; 

"  Quasi  marks  consuetudo  as  a  translation  of  ^do%   and 
suggests  its  relation  to  ^dos. 

*  This  translates  Zeno's  term  TrpoKotrr).  '  TeXeiwacj. 

^  Translates  fM4pos.  *  17  dvdpuinvTi  KOLvuvia. 

430 


ACADEMICA,  I.  v. 

Among  goods  of  tbe  body  they  laid  it  down  that  some 
resided  in  the  whole  frame  and  others  in  the  parts  : 
health,  strength  and  beauty  were  goods  of  the  whole, 
goods  of  the  parts  were  sound  senses  and  the  par- 
ticular  excellences  of  the  parts  severally,  for  instance 
speed  in  the  feet,  power  in  the  hands,  clearness  in  the 
voice,  and  also  an  even  and  distinct  articulation  of 

20  sounds  as  a  quahty  of  the  tongue.  Goodness  of  the 
mind  consisted  in  the  quahties  conducive  to  the  com- 
prehension  of  virtue  ;  these  they  divided  into  gifts 
of  nature  and  features  of  the  moral  character — quick- 
ness  of  apprehension  and  memory  they  assigned  to 
nature,  each  of  them  being  a  mental  and  intellectual 
property,  while  to  the  moral  character  they  deemed 
to  belong  the  interests  or  *  habit  ' "  which  they 
moulded  partly  by  dihgent  practice  and  partly  by 
reason,  practice  and  reason  being  the  domain  of 
philosophy  itself.  In  this  philosophy  a  commence- 
ment  not  carried  to  completion  is  called  '  progress  '  * 
towards  virtue,  but  the  completed  course  is  virtue, 
which  is  the  *  consummation  '  <=  of  nature,  and  is  the 
most  supremely  excellent  of  all  the  faculties  of  the 
mind  as  they  define  them.    This  then  is  their  account 

21  of  the  mind.  To  '  estate ' — that  was  the  third 
division — they  said  belonged  certain  properties  that 
influenced  the  exercise  of  virtue.  For  virtue  is  dis- 
played  in  connexion  with  the  goods  of  the  mind 
and  those  of  the  body,  and  with  some  that  are  the 
attributes  not  so  much  of  nature  as  of  happiness. 
Man  they  deemed  to  be,  so  to  say,  a  '  part  '  ^  of  the 
state  and  of  the  human  race  as  a  whole,  and  they  held 
that  a  man  was  conjoined  with  his  fellow-men  by  the 
*  partnership  of  humanity.' *  And  this  being  their 
treatment   of  the   supreme   good   as   bestowed   by 

431 


CICERO 

cetera  autem  pertinere  ad  id  putant  aut  adaugendum 
aut  tuendum,^  ut  dmtias,  ut  opes,  ut  gloriam,  ut 
gratiam.  Ita  tripartita  ab  iis  inducitur  ratio  bonorum. 
22  VI.  "  Atque  haec  illa  sunt  tria  genera  quae  putant 
plerique  Peripateticos  dicere.  Id  quidem  non  falso, 
est  enim  haec  partitio  illorum  ;  illud  imprudenter, 
si  alios  esse  Academicos  qui  tum^  appellarentur,  alios 
Peripateticos  arbitrantur.  Communis  haec  ratio  et 
utrisque  hic  bonorum  finis  videbatur,  adipisci  quae 
essent  prima  natura  quaeque  ipsa  per  sese  expetenda, 
aut  omnia  aut  maxima  ;  ea  sunt  autem  maxima  quae 
in  ipso  animo  atque  in  ipsa  virtute  versantur.  Itaque 
omnis  illa  antiqua  philosophia  sensit  in  una  virtute 
esse  positam  beatara  vitam,  nec  tamen  beatissimam 
nisi  adiungerentur  et  corporis  et  cetera  quae  supra 

23  dicta  sunt  ad  virtutis  usum  idonea.  Ex  hac  descrip- 
tione  agendi  quoque  aliquid  in  vita  et  offici  ipsius 
initium  reperiebatur,  quod  erat  in  conservatione 
earum  rerum  quas  natura  praescriberet.  Hinc  gigne- 
batur  fuga  desidiae  voluptatumque  contemptio,  ex 
quo  laborum  dolorumque  susceptio  multorum  magno- 
rumque  recti  honestique  causa  et  earum  rerum  quae 
erant  congruentes  cum  descriptione  naturae,  unde  et 
amicitia  exsistebat  et  iustitia  atque  aequitas,  eaeque 
et  voluptatibus  et  multis  vitae  commodis  antepone- 
bantur.  Haec  quidem  fuit  apud  eos  morum  institutio  et 
eius  partis  quam  primam  posui  forma  atque  descriptio. 

24  "  De  natura  autem  (id  enim  sequebatur)  ita  dice- 

^  Lamhinus  :  tenendum  codd. 
2  Reid  :  dum  codd. 

"  A  dual  rendering  of  rb  koXop, 
432 


ACADEMICA,  I.  v.— vi. 

nature,  all  other  goods  they  considered  to  be  factors 
contributing  either  to  its  increase  or  to  its  protection, 
for  instance  wealth,  resources,  fame,  influence.  Thus 
they  introduced  a  triple  classification  of  goods. 

22  VI.  "  And  this  corresponds  with  the  three  classes 
of  goods  which  inost  people  think  to  be  intended  by 
the  Peripatetics.  This  is  indeed  correct,  for  this 
classification  is  theirs,  but  it  is  a  mistake  if  people 
suppose  that  the  Academics  quoted  above  and  the 
Peripatetics  were  different  schools.  This  theory  was 
common  to  both,  and  both  held  that  the  end  of  goods 
was  to  acquire  either  all  or  the  greatest  of  the  things 
that  are  by  nature  primary,  and  are  intrinsically 
worthy  of  desire  ;  and  the  greatest  of  these  are  the 
ones  which  have  their  being  in  the  mind  itself  and 
in  virtue  itself.  Accordingly  the  whole  of  the  great 
philosophy  of  antiquity  held  that  happiness  hes  in 
virtue  alone,  yet  that  happiness  is  not  supreme  ^vith- 
out  the  addition  of  the  goods  of  the  body  and  all  the 
other  goods  suitable  for  the  employment  of  virtue  that 

23  were  specified  above.  From  this  scheme  they  used 
also  to  arrive  at  a  first  principle  of  conduct  in  Hfe  and 
of  duty  itself,  which  principle  lay  in  safeguarding  the 
things  that  nature  prescribed.  Hence  sprang  the  duty 
of  avoiding  idleness  and  of  disregarding  pleasures, 
leading  on  to  the  undergoing  of  many  great  toils 
and  pains  for  the  sake  of  the  right  and  noble,'^  and 
of  the  objects  in  harmony  with  the  plan  marked  out 
by  nature,  from  which  sprang  friendship,  and  also 
justice  and  fairness  ;  and  these  they  rated  higher 
than  pleasures  and  an  abundance  of  the  good  things 
of  life.  This  then  was  their  system  of  ethics,  the 
plan  and  outUne  of  the  department  that  I  placed  first. 

24  "  The  subject  of  nature  (for  that  came  next)  they 

433 


Virtue  atid 
conduct. 


CICERO 

bant  tit  eam  dividerent  in  res  duas,  ut  altera  esset 
efficiens,  altera  autem  quasi  huic  se  praebens,  ex 
qua^  efficeretur  aliquid.  In  eo  quod  efficeret  \dm  esse 
censebant,  in  eo  autem  quod  efficeretur  materiam 
quandam  ;  in  utroque  tamen  utrumque,  neque  enim 
materiam  ipsam  cohaerere  potuisse  si  nulla  vi  con- 
tineretur,  neque  vim  sine  ahqua  materia  (nihil  est 
enim  quod  non  alicubi  esse  cogatur).  Sed  quod  ex 
utroque,  id  iam  corpus  et  quasi  quahtatem  quandam 
nominabant — dabitis  enim  profecto  ut  in  rebus  inusi- 
tatis,  quod  Graeci  ipsi  faciunt  a  quibus  haec  iam  diu 
tractantur,  utamur  verbis  interdum  inauditis." 
25  VII.  "  Nos  vero,"  inquit  Atticus ;  "  quin  etiam 
Graecis  hcebit  utare  cum  voles,  si  te  Latina  forte 
deficient."  "  Bene  sane  facis  ;  sed  enitar  ut  Latine 
loquar,  nisi  in  huiusce  modi  verbis,  ut  philosophiam 
aut  rhetoricam  aut  physicam  aut  dialecticam  appel- 
lem,  quibus  ut  ahis  multis  consuetudo  iam  utitur  pro 
Latinis.  QuaUtates  igitur  appellavi  quas  Trotor/yTas 
Graeci  vocant,  quod  ipsum  apud  Graecos  non  est 

^  ex  qua  Turnehus :  eaque  codd. :  ex  eaque  Mdv. 

"  The  two  dpxci'»  TroirjTLK-r)  and  iradT^TLK-q.  Qiiasi  marks 
huic  se  praebens  as  a  translation  of  the  latter. 

*  Qiiandam  apologizes  for  the  use  of  materia^  'timber/  as 
a  philosophical  term  to  translate  t^X-q. 

«  This  clause  explains  the  preceding  clause  only  and  is 
traceable  ultimately  to  Timaeus  52  b  (pd/ieu  di^ayKalov  ehai 
irov  To  bu  dirav  iv  tlvl  towlc,  Apparently  Antiochus  with 
Plato  identified  matter  and  space. 

^  i.e.,  organized  matter,  materia  being  matter  as  yet  un- 
formed. 

*  Cicero  apologizes  for  coining  the  word  qualitas  to  render 
iroL6Tr)$f  '  what-sort-ness,'  a  term  coined  by  Plato,  Theaetetus^ 
189  A  ;  the  Latin  abstract  noun,  hke  the  Greek,  is  used  for 
the  concrete,  '  a  thing  of  a  certain  quaUty,'  an  object  possess- 
ing  certain  properties. 

434 


ACADEMICA,  I.  vi.— vii. 

dealt  with  by  the  method  of  dividing  nature  into  two  (3)  Anti- 
principles,"  the  one  the  active,  and  the  other  thep^^y^-gg. 
'  passive,'  on  which  the  active  operated  and  out  of  entities  are 
which  an  entity  ^vas  created.     The  active  principle  hiformed 
they  deemed  to  constitute  force,  the  one  acted  on,  ^y  force. 
a  sort  of  '  material  '  '^  ;   yet  they  held  that  each  of 
the  two  was  present  in  the  combination  of  both,  for 
matter  could  not  have  formed  a  concrete  whole  by 
itself  ^\ith  no  force  to  hold  it  together,  nor  yet  force 
without  some  matter  (for  nothing  exists  that  is  not 
necessarily  somewhere  ^).     But  when  they  got  to  the 
product  of  both  force  and  matter,  they  called  this 
'body,'^  and,  if  I  may  use  the  term,  '  quahty  '  ^ — 
as  we    are  deaUng  wdth   unusual  subjects   you  ^vdll 
of   course    allow    us    occasionally  to    employ   words 
never  heard  before,  as  do  the   Greeks   themselves, 
who  have  now  been  handhng  these  topics  for  a  long 
time." 
25      VII.  "  To  be  sure  we  will,"  said  Atticus  ;  "  indeed 
you  shall  be  permitted  to  employ  even  Greek  words 
if  Latin  ones  happen  to  fail  you."     "  That  is  certainly 
kind  of  you,  but  I  will  do  my  best  to  talk   Latin, 
except  in   the   case  of  words    of  the   sort   now   in 
question,  so  as  to  employ  the  term  '  philosophy  '  or 
*  rhetoric  '  or  '  physics  '  ^  or  *  dialectic,'  ^  which  hke 
many  others  are  now  habitually  used  as  Latin  words. 
I  have  therefore  given  the  name  of '  quahties  '  to  the 
things  that  the  Greeks  call  poiotetes  ;   even  among 
the   Greeks  it  is  not  a  word  in  ordinary  use,  but 

'  i.e.,  the  whole  of  natural  science,  of  which  physics  in  the 
modern  sense  is  a  part. 

"  i.e.,  \ogic  (including  both  formal  logic  and  epistemology 
or  the  theory  of  knowiedge,  cf.  ii.  142) ;  XoyiKrj  included  both 
5ta\e/cTi/cv)  and  pT]TopiK7].      C/.  §  30  n. 

435 


CICERO 

vulgi  verbum  sed  philosophorum  ;  atque  id  in  multis. 
Dialecticorum  vero  verba  nulla  sunt  pubHca,  suis 
utuntur  ;  et  id  quidem  commune  omnium  fere  est 
artium,  aut  enim  nova  sunt  rerum  novarum  facienda 
nomina  aut  ex  ahis  transferenda.  Quod  si  Graeci  faciunt 
qui  in  his  rebus  tot  iam  saecula  versantur,  quanto  id 
magis  nobis  concedendum  est  qui  haec  nunc  primum 
26  tractare  conamur  ?  "  "  Tu  vero,"  inquam,  "  Varro, 
bene  etiam  meriturus  mihi  videris  de  tuis  civibus  si 
eos  non  modo  copia  rerum  auxeris,  ut  fecisti,^  sed 
etiam  verborum."  "  Audebimus  ergo,"  inquit,  "novis 
verbis  uti  te  auctore  si  necesse  erit.  Earum  igitur 
quahtatum  sunt  ahae  principes,  aUae  ex  his  ortae. 
Principes  sunt  unius  modi  et  simplices  ;  ex  his  autem 
variae  ortae  sunt  et  quasi  multiformes.  Itaque  aer 
(hoc  quoque  utimur  iam^  pro  Latino)  et  ignis  et 
aqua  et  terra  prima  sunt  ;  ex  his  autem  ortae  animan- 
tium  formae  earumque  rerum  quae  gignuntur  e  terra. 
Ergo  illa  initia  et  (ut  e  Graeco  vertam)  elementa 
dicuntur  ;  e  quibus  aer  et  ignis  movendi  vim  habent 
et  efficiendi,  reliquae^  partes  accipiendi  et  quasi 
patiendi,  aquam  dico  et  terram.  Quintum  genus,  e  quo 
essent  astra  mentesque,  singulare  eorumque  quattuor 
quae  supra  dixi  dissimile  Aristoteles  quoddam  esse 

^  ut  effecisti  codd.  fere  omnes  :  uti  fecisti  KJotz, 
'  Halm  :  enim  codd.  ^  reliqua  Jlalm. 


*  i.e.,  '  qualified  objects,'  classes  of  things,  abstract  for 
concrete,  cf.  §  24-.  ^  iroXveidrjs. 

*  A  literal  translation  of  (pvrd — the  vegetable  kingdom. 
**   a.pxo.i.  *  (TTOixela. 

*  Halm's  emendation  gives  '  and  the  remaining  elements 

•  .  .  the  receptive  and  passive  role.'     But   c/.   Tusc.  i.  40 

*  terram  et  mare  .  .  .  reliquae  duae  partes.' 
436 


ACADEMICA,  I.  vii. 

belongs  to  the  philosophers,  and  this  is  the  case  with 
many  terms.  But  the  dialecticians'  vocabulary  is 
none  of  it  the  popular  language,  they  use  words  of 
their  own  ;  and  indeed  this  is  a  feature  shared  by 
almost  all  the  sciences  :  either  new  names  have  to  be 
coined  for  new  things,  or  names  taken  from  other 
things  have  to  be  used  metaphorically.  This  being 
the  practice  of  the  Greeks,  who  have  now  been  en- 
gaged  in  these  studies  for  so  many  generations,  how 
much  more  ought  it  to  be  allowed  to  us,  who  are  now 
attempting  to  handle  these  subjects  for  the  first 
26  time  !  "  "  Indeed,  Varro,"  said  I,  "  I  think  you  will  The 
actually  be  doing  a  ser\dce  to  your  fellow-countrymen  ^^^"^"'^^ 
if  you  not  only  enlarge  their  store  of  facts,  as  you 
have  done,  but  of  words  also."  "  Then  on  your 
authority  we  will  venture  to  employ  new  words,  if  we 
have  to.  Well  then,  those  qualities  "■  are  of  two  sorts, 
primary  and  derivative.  Things  of  primary  quahty 
are  homogeneous  and  simple  ;  those  derived  from 
them  are  varied  and  '  multiform.'  ^  Accordingly 
air  (this  word  also  we  now  use  as  Latin)  and  fire  and 
water  and  earth  are  primary  ;  while  their  derivatives 
are  the  species  of  hving  creatures  and  of  the  things 
that  grow  out  of  the  earth.*'  Therefore  those  things 
are  termed  first  principles  ^  and  (to  translate  from 
the  Greek)  elements  *  ;  and  among  them  air  and  fire 
have  motive  and  efficient  force,  and  the  remaining 
divisions,  I  mean  water  and  earth,  receptive  and 
'  passive  '  capacity.-''  Aristotle  deemed  that  there 
existed  a  certain  fifth  sort  of  element,^  in  a  class  by 
itself  and  unhke  the  four  that  I  have  mentioned  above, 
which  was  the  source  of  the  stars  and  of  thinkino: 

'  This  TreiJLnTT)  ovaia,  quinta  essentia.  has  floated  down  to 
us  in  the  word  '  quintessence.' 

437 


CICERO 

21  rebatur.  Sed  subiectam  putant  omnibus  slne  ulla 
specie  atque  carentem  omni  illa  qualitate  (facia- 
mus  enim  tractando  usitatius  hoc  verbum  et  tritius) 
materiam  quandam,  e  qua  omnia  expressa  atque  ef- 
ficta  sint,  quae  una  omnia  accipere  possit  omnibusque 
modis  mutari  atque  ex  omni  parte,  atque  etiam  interire, 
non  in  nihilum  sed  in  suas  partes,  quae  infinite  secari 
ac  dividi  possint,  cum  sit  nihil  omnino  in  rerum  natura 
minimum  quod  dividi  nequeat ;  quae  autem  movean- 
tur,  omnia  intervaUis  moveri,  quae  intervalla  item 

28  infmite  dividi  possint.  Et  cum  ita  moveatur  illa  vis 
quam  quaUtatem  esse  diximus  et  cum  sic  ultro 
citroque  versetur,  et  materiam  ipsam  totam  penitus 
commutari  putant  et  illa  effici  quae  appellant  quaha, 
e  quibus  in  omni  natura  cohaerente  et  continuata 
cum  omnibus  suis  partibus  unum  effectum  esse  mun- 
dum,  extra  quem  nulla  pars  materiae  sit  nuUumque 
corpus,  partes  autem  esse  mundi  omnia  quae  insint 
in  eo  quae  natura  sentiente  teneantur,  in  qua  ratio 
perfecta  insit  quae  sit  eadem  sempiterna  (nihil  enim 

29  valentius  esse  a  quo  intereat)  ;  quam  vim  animum 
esse  dicunt  mundi,  eandemque  esse  mentem  sapien- 
tiamque  perfectam,  quem  deum  appehant,  omnium- 
que  rerum  quae  sint  ei  subiectae  quasi  prudentiam 
quandam,  procurantem  caelestia  maxime,  deinde  in 
terris  ea  quae  pertineant  ad  homines  ;    quam  inter- 

"  i.e.,  spaces  of  void  or  vacuum  that  are  between  the  soHds 
and  enable  them  to  move. 

*  See  §  25  n.  The  Stoics  asserted  that  everything  real 
has  two  components,  the  active  and  the  passive,  force  and 
matter,  and  they  expressed  the  former  as  '  quahty  ' ;  but  they 
emphasized  their  materiahsm  by  sometimes  speaking  of  the 
qualifying  force  as  a  current  of  air. 

«  TToid.  **  Aatura  =  ov<jla  =  \yKT],  ef.  ii.  118. 

*  Cf.  N.D.  ii.  22,  75,  85. 
^3S 


ACADEMICA,  I.  vii. 

27  minds.     But  they  hold  that  underlying  all  things  is  Matter  and 
a  substance   called  '  matter,'  entirely  formless   and  j^jHn^teiy 
devoid  of  all   'quality  '  (for  let  us  make  this  word  'livisibie. 
more  familiar  and  manageable  by  handhng),  and  that 

out  of  it  all  things  have  been  formed  and  produced, 
so  that  this  matter  can  in  its  totahty  receive  all 
things  and  undergo  every  sort  of  transformation 
throughout  every  part  of  it,  and  in  fact  even  suffer 
dissolution,  not  into  nothingness  but  into  its  own 
parts,which  are  capable  of  infinite  sectionand  division, 
since  there  exists  nothing  whatever  in  the  nature  of 
things  that  is  an  absolute  least,  incapable  of  division  ; 
but  that  all  things  that  are  in  motion  move  by 
means  of  interspaces,°  these  Ukewise  being  infinitely 

28  divisible.     And  since  the  force  that  we  have  called  The  Cosvwa. 
*  quality  '  ^  moves  in  this  manner  and  since  it  thus 

^vibrates  to  and  fro,  they  think  that  the  whole  of 
matter  also  is  itself  in  a  state  of  complete  change 
throughout,  and  is  made  into  the  things  which  they 
term  *  quahfied,' "  out  of  which  in  the  concrete 
whole  of  substance,^  a  continuum  united  with  all  its 
parts,  has  been  produced  one  world,  outside  of  which 
there  is  no  portion  of  matter  and  no  body,  w^hile  all 
the  things  that  are  in  the  world  are  parts  of  it,  held 
together  by  a  sentient  being,^  in  w^hich  perfect  reason, 
is  immanent,  and  which  is  immutable  ^  and  eternal 
since  nothing  stronger  exists  to  cause  it  to  perish  ; 

29  and  this  force  they  say  is  the  soul  of  the  world,  and  The  aii- 
is  also  perfect  intelhgence  and  wisdom,  which  they  r^^oq"" 
entitle  God,  and  is  a  sort  of  *  providence  '  ^  knowing 

the  things  that  fall  within  its  pro\"ince,  governing 

especially  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  then  those  things 

on  earth  that  concern  mankind  ;   and  this  force  they 

^  Eadem  denotes  self-identity.  '  irpovoLa. 

439 


CICERO 

diun  eandem  necessitatem  appellant,  quia  nihil  aliter 
possit^  atque  ab  ea  constitutum  sit  inter'*  quasi 
fatalem  et  immutabilem  continuationem  ordinis  sem- 
piterni ;  non  numquam  quidem  eandem  fortunam, 
quod  efficiat  multa  improvisa  ac  necopinata  nobis 
propter  obscuritatem  ignorationemque  causarum. 

30  VIII.  "  Tertia  deinde  philosophiae  pars,  quae  erat 
in  ratione  et  in  disserendo,  sic  tractabatur  ab  utris- 
que.  Quamquam  oriretur  a  sensibus,  tamen  non 
esse  iudicium  veritatis  in  sensibus  :  mentem  volebant 
rerum  esse  iudicem  ;  solam  censebant  idoneam  cui 
crederetur,  quia  sola  cerneret  id  quod  semper  esset 
simplex  et  unius  modi  et  tale  quale  esset.  Hanc  illi 
ISeav   appellant,  iam  a  Platone  ita  nominatam,  nos 

31  recte  speciem  possimius  dicere.  Sensus  autem  omnes 
hebetes  et  tardos  esse  arbitrabantur  nec  percipere 
ullo  modo  res  ullas  quae  subiectae  sensibus  viderentur,^ 
quod  aut  ita  essent  parvae  ut  sub  sensum  cadere  non 
possent,  aut  ita  mobiles  et  concitatae  ut  nihil  umquam 
unum  esset^  constans,  ne  idem  quidem,  quia  conti- 
nenter  laberentur  et  fluerent  omnia  ;    itaque  hanc 

32  omnem  partem  rerum  opinabilem  appellabant.  Scien- 
tiam  autem  nusquam  esse  censebant  nisi  in  animi 
notionibus  atque  rationibus  ;  qua  de  causa  defini- 
tiones  rerum  probabant  et  has  ad  omnia  de  quibus 
disceptabatur  adhibebant.  Verborum  etiam  expU- 
catio  probabatur,  id  est,  qua  de  causa  quaeque  essent 
ita  nominata,  quam  eVv/xoAoyiai/  appellabant ;    post 

^  <esse>  possit  ?  ed.  ^  inter  :  evenire  Turnebus, 

3  esset  <et>  edd.f  esset  <aut>  Reid. 


*•  KaTTfvayKaa jxhrfv  tlvcl  Kal  airapa^aTov  avfJLirXoK-fiv. 
*  A  dual  rendering  of  \oyiK-q,  or  perhaps  of  8ia\eKTiKri. 
Spp  §  27  n.  *  i.e.,  definition  of  res,  things,  not  of  words. 


440 


ACADEMICA,  I.  vii.— viii. 

also  sometimes  call  Necessity,  because  nothing  can 
happen  otherwise  than  has  been  ordained  by  it 
under  a  *  fated  and  unchangeable  concatenation  of 
everlasting  order  '  °  ;  although  they  sometimes  also 
term  it  Fortune,  because  many  of  its  operations  are 
unforeseen  and  unexpected  by  us  on  account  of  their 
obscurity  and  our  ignorance  of  causes. 

30  VIII.  "  Then  the  third  part  of  philosophy,  con-(4)Anti. 
sisting  in  reason  and  in  discussion,^  was  treated  by  ^q^q^ 
them  both  as  follows.     The  criterion  of  truth  arose 
indeed  from  the  senses,  yet  was  not  in  the  senses  : 

the  judge  of  things  was,  they  held,  the  mind — they 
thought  that  it  alone  deserves  credence,  because  it 
alone  perceives  that  which  is  eternally  simple  and 
uniform  and  true  to  its  own  quahty.  This  thing  they 
call  the  Idea,  a  name  already  given  it  by  Plato  ;   we 

31  can  correctly  term  it  form.  All  the  senses  on  the 
other  hand  they  deemed  to  be  duU  and  sluggish,  and 
entirely  unperceptive  of  all  the  things  supposed  to 
fall  within  the  province  of  the  senses,  which  were 
either  so  small  as  to  be  imperceptible  by  sense,  or  in 
such  a  violent  state  of  motion  that  no  single  thing 
was  ever  stationary,  nor  even  remained  the  same 
thing,  because  all  things  were  in  continual  ebb  and 
flow  ;     accordingly    all   this   portion   of  things   they 

32  called  the  object  of  opinion.  Knowledge  on  the 
other  hand  they  deemed  to  exist  nowhere  except  in 
the  notions  and  reasonings  of  the  mind  ;  and  conse- 
quently  they  approved  the  method  of  defining  things, 
and  applied  this  '  real  definition  '  '^  to  all  the  subjects 
that  they  discussed.  They  also  gave  approval  to 
derivation  of  words,  that  is,  the  statement  of  the 
reason  why  each  class  of  things  bears  the  name 
that  it  does — the  subject  termed  by  them  etymology 

441 


CICERO 

argumentis  quibusdam^  et  quasi  rerum  notis  ducibus 
utebantur  ad  probandum  et  ad  coneludendum  id  quod 
explanari  volebant ;  in  quo-  tradebatur  omnis  dialec- 
ticae  disciplina,  id  est,  orationis  ratione  conclusae  ; 
huic  quasi  ex  altera  parte  oratoria  \as  dicendi  adhibe- 
batur,  expUcatrix  orationis  perpetuae  ad  persuaden- 
dum  accommodatae. 

33  "  Haec  erat  iUis  prima  forma^  a  Platone  tradita  ; 
cuius  quas  acceperim  immutationes,^  si  vultis,  ex- 
ponam."  "  Nos  vero  volumus,"  inquam,  "  ut  pro 
Attico  etiam  respondeam."  "  Et  recte,"  inquit, 
"  respondes ;  praeclare  enim  explicatur  Peripateti- 
corum  et  Academiae  veteris  auctoritas." 

IX.  "  Aristoteles^  primus  species  quas  paulo  ante 
dixi  labefacta\-it,  quas  mirifice  Plato  erat  amplexatus, 
ut  in  iis  quiddam  divinum  esse  diceret.  Theophrastus 
autem,  vir  et  oratione  suavis  et  ita  moratus  ut 
probitatem  quandam  prae  se  et  ingenuitatem  ferat, 
vehementius  etiam  fregit  quodam  modo  auctoritatem 
veteris  disciphnae  ;  spoHavit  enim  virtutem  suo 
decore  imbecillamque   reddidit  quod  negavit  in  ea 

34  sola  positum  esse  beate  vivere.  Nam  Strato  eius 
auditor,  quamquam  fuit  acri  ingenio,  tamen  ab  ea 
disciphna  omnino  semovendus  est,  qui  cum  maxime 
necessariam  partem  philosophiae,  quae  posita  est  in 
\1rtute  et  moribus,  reliquisset  totumque  se  ad  investi- 
gationem  naturae  contuHsset,  in  ea  ipsa  plurimum 
dissedit  a  suis.    Speusippus  autem  et  Xenocrates,  qui 

^  quibusdam  delendum  ?  {om.  codd.  nonnulli). 

2  Manutius  :  qua  codd. 
*  prima  forma  Reid  :   prima  codd.  :  forma  Mdv. 
*  Davies  :  disputationes  codd. 
^  Aristoteles  iy^itur  cod.  unvs. 
"  Qaasi  marks  notis  as  an  explanation  of  argumentis  used 
to  translate  avjx^oXa,  '  avTlaTpocpov, 

442 


ACADEMICA,  I 


.    Vlll. IX. 


and  then  they  used  derivations  as  *  tokens  '  or  so  to 
say  marks  °  of  things,  as  guides  for  arriving  at  proofs 
or  conclusions  as  to  anything  of  which  they  desired 
an  explanation  ;  and  under  this  head  was  imparted 
their  whole  doctrine  of  Dialectic,  that  is,  speech  cast 
in  the  form  of  logical  argument  ;  to  this  as  a  '  coun- 
terpart  '  ^  \vas  added  the  faculty  of  Rhetoric,  which 
sets  out  a  continuous  speech  adapted  to  the  purpose 
of  persuasion. 

J3      "  This  was  their  primary  system,  inherited  from  Departorea 
Plato  ;    and  if  you  wish  I  will  expound  the  modifica-  [jj^'"  ^^® 
tions    of  it   that    have    reached   me."     "  Of   course  doctrine 
we  wlsh  it,"  said  I,  "  if  I  may  reply  for  Atticus  as 
well."     "  And   you   reply   correctly,"    said   Atticus, 
"  for  he  is  giving  a  brilliant  exposition  of  the  doctrine 
of  the  Peripatetics  and  the  Old  Academy." 

IX.  "  Aristotle  was  the  first  to  undermine  the 
Forms  of  which  I  spoke  a  Httle  while  before,  w^hich 
had  been  so  marvellously  embodied  in  the  system  of 
Plato,  who  spoke  of  them  as  containing  an  element 
of  divinity.  Theophrastus,  who  has  a  charming  style 
and  also  a  certain  conspicuous  uprightness  and 
nobiUty  of  character,  in  a  way  made  an  even  more 
violent  breach  in  the  authority  of  the  old  doctrine  ; 
for  he  robbed  virtue  of  her  beauty  and  weakened  her 
strength  by  denying  that  the  happy  hfe  is  placed  in 

34  her  alone.  As  for  his  pupil  Strato,  although  he  had  a 
penetrating  intellect  nevertheless  he  must  be  kept 
altogether  separate  from  that  school ;  he  abandoned 
the  most  essential  part  of  philosophy,  which  consists 
in  ethics,  to  devote  himself  entirely  to  research  in 
natural  science,  and  even  in  this  he  differed  very 
widely  from  his  friends.  On  the  other  hand  Speusip- 
pus  and  Xenocrates,  the  first  inheritors  of  the  system 

443 


CICERO 

primi  Platonis  rationem  auctoritatemque  susceperant, 
et  post  eos  Polemo  et  Crates  unaque  Crantor  in 
Academia  congregati  diligenter  ea  quae  a  superiori- 

35  bus  acceperant  tuebantur.  lam  Polemonem  audi- 
verant  adsidue  Zeno  et  Arcesilas  ;  sed  Zeno  cimi 
Arcesilam  anteiret  aetate  valdeque  subtiliter  dis- 
sereret  et  peracute  moveretur,  corrigere  conatus  est 
disciplinam.  Eam  quoque,  si  videtur,  correctionem 
explicabo,  sicut  solebat  Antiochus."  "  Mihi  vero," 
inquam,  "  videtur,  quod  vides  idem  significare 
Pomponium." 

X.  "  Zeno  igitur  nullo  modo  is  erat  qui  ut  Theo- 
phrastus  nervos  virtutis  inciderit,  sed  contra  qui 
omnia  quae  ad  beatam  vitam  pertinerent  in  una 
virtute  poneret  nec  quidquam  aliud  numeraret  in 
bonis,  idque  appellaret  honestum,  quod  esset  simplex 

36  quoddam  et  solum  et  unum  bonum.  Cetera  autem 
etsi  nec  bona  nec  mala  essent,  tamen  alia  secundum 
naturam  dicebat,^  aUa  naturae  esse^  contraria  ;  his 
ipsis  aha  interiecta  et  media  numerabat.  Quae 
autem  secundum  naturam  essent,  ea  sumenda  et 
quadam  aestimatione  dignanda  docebat,  contraque 
contraria,  neutra  autem  in  mediis  rehnquebat.     In 

37  quibus  ponebat  nihil  omnino  esse  momenti,  sed  quae 
essent  sumenda,^  ex  iis  aUa  pluris  esse  aestimanda, 
aUa  minoris  :  quae  pluris  ea  praeposita  appeUabat, 
reiecta  autem  quae  minoris.  Atque  ut  haec  non  tam 
rebus  quam  vocabuUs  commutaverat,  sic  inter  recte 

^  Lamhinus  :  docebat  codd.  ^  [esse]  Ernesti. 

^  sumenda  :  media  Davies :  <non>  sumenda  ?  ed. 
"  To  KaXov. 

'  Sumenda  is  carelessly  put  for  neutra — unless  indeed  the 
text  should  be  corrected  by  inserting  '' not  to  be  chosen." 

*  t.«.,  of  minus  value,  in  grades  of  undesirability  :  this 
inaccuracy  occurs  in  the  Greek  authorities. 


ACADEMICA,  I.  ix.— x. 

and  aiithority  of  Plato,  and  after  them  Polemo  and 
Crates,  and  also  Crantor,  gathered  in  the  one  fold  of 
the  Academy,  were  assiduous  defenders  of  the  doc- 
trines  that  they  had  received  from  their  predecessors. 
36  Finally,  Polemo  had  had  diligent  pupils  in  Zeno  and  countered 
Arcesilas,  but  Zcno,  who  was  Arcesilas's  senior  in  age  ^^  ^®"°* 
and  an  extremely  subtle  dialectician  and  very  acute 
thinker,  instituted  a  reform  of  the  system.  This  re- 
modelled  doctrine  also  I  willexpound,  if  you  approve, 
as  it  used  to  be  expounded  by  Antiochus."  "  I  do 
approve,"  said  I,  "  and  Pomponius,  as  you  see,  in- 
dicates  his  agreement." 

X.  "  Well,  Zeno  was  by  no  means  the  man  ever  to  Zeno'8 
hamstring  virtue,  as  Theophrastus  had  done,  but  on  ^iassifica. 
the  contrary  to  make  it  his  practice  to  place  all  the  tnn  of^ 
constituents  of  happiness  in  virtue  alone,  and  to  in-  vfrtue  the 
clude  nothing  else  in  the  category  of  Good^  entithng  *°^®  6°°^- 
virtue  *  the  noble,'  "  which  denoted  a  sort  of  uniform, 

36  unique  and  sohtary  good.  All  other  things,  he  said, 
were  neither  good  nor  bad,  but  nevertheless-some  of 
them  were  in  accordance  with  nature  and  others  con- 
trary  to  nature  ;  also  among  these  he  counted  another 
interposed  or  *  intermediate  '  class  of  things.  He 
taught  that  things  in  accordajiceAvith  nature  were  to 
be  chosen  and  estimated  as  having  a  certain  value, 
and  their  opposites  the  opposite,  while  things  that 
were  neither  he  left  in  the  *  intermediate  '  class. 
These  he  declared  to  possess  no  motive  force  whatever, 

37  but  among  things  to  be  chosen  ^  some  were  to  be 
deemed  of  more  value  and  others  of  less  ^ :  the  more 
valuable  he  termed  '  preferred,'  the  less  valuable, 
*  rejected.'  _And  just  as  with  these  he  had  made  an 
alteration  of  terminology  rather  than  of  substance, 

Q  44>5 


CICERO 

factum  atque  peccatum  ofiicium  et  contra  ofRcium 
media  locabat  quaedam,  recte  facta  sola  in  bonis 
[actionibus]^  ponens,  prave,  id  est  peccata,  in  malis ; 
officia  autem^  servata  praetermissaque  media  putabat, 

38  ut  dixi.  Cumque  superiores  non  omnem  virtutem  in 
ratione  esse  dicerent  sed  quasdam  virtutes  natura 
aut  more  perfectas,  hic  omnes  in  ratione  ponebat ; 
cumque  illi  ea  genera  virtutum  quae  supra  dixi 
seiungi  posse  arbitrarentur,  hic  nec  id  ullo  modo  fieri 
posse  disserebat  nec  virtutis  usum  modo,ut  superiores, 
sed  ipsum  habitum  per  se  esse  praeclarum,  nec  tamen 
vlrtutem  cuiquam  adesse  quin  ea  semper  uteretur. 
Cumque  perturbationem  animi  illi  ex  homine  non 
tollerent,  naturaque  et  condolescere  et  concupiscere 
et  extimescere  et  efFerri  laetitia  dicerent,  sed  ea  con- 
traherent  in  angustumque  deducerent,  hic  omnibus 

39  his  quasi  morbis  voluit  carere  sapientem  ;  cumque 
eas  perturbationes  antiqui  naturales  esse  dicerent  et 
rationis  expertes,  aliaque  in  parte  animi  cupiditatem, 
alia  rationem  collocarent,  ne  his  quidem  adsentie- 
batur,  nam  et  perturbationes  voluntarias  esse  putabat 
opinionisque  iudicio  suscipi  et  omnium  perturba- 
tionum  matrem  esse  arbitrabatur  immoderatam 
quandam  intemperantiam.     Haec  fere  de  moribus. 

XI.  "  De  naturis  autem  sic  sentiebat,  primum  ut  in 
quattuor  initiis  rerum  iUis  quintam  hanc  naturam  ex 
qua  superiores  sensus  et  mentem  effici  rebantur  non 

^  ed.  2  autem  Lamhinus  :  autem  et  codd. 

<•  Officium  is  Cicero's  rendering  of  KadTjKov,  *  a  suitable 
act,'  formally  right  in  the  circumstances,  whatever  the 
motive  of  the  agent.  *  i.e..,  KaXop. 

*  So,  in  a  later  theology,  faith  is  manifested  in  works. 
**  Morhus  is  a  translation  of  TTddos. 

•  i.e.,  the  elements.  ^  See  §  26. 
446 


ACADEMICA,  I.  x.— xi. 

so  between  a  right  action  and  a  sin  he  placed  appro- 
priate  action  ^  and  action  violating  propriety  as  things 
intermediate,  classing  only  actions  rightly  done  as 
goods  and  actions  wrongly  done,  that  is  sins,  as  evils, 
whereas  the   observance   or  neglect  of  appropriate 

38  acts  he  deemed  intermediate,  as  I  said.  And  whereas 
his  predecessors  said  that  not  all  virtue  resides  in  the 
reason,  but  that  certain  virtues  are  perfected  by 
nature  or  by  habit,  he  placed  all  the  virtues  in  reason  ; 
and  whereas  they  thought  that  the  kinds  of  virtues 
that  I  have  stated  above  can  be  classed  apart,  he 
argued  that  this  is  absolutely  impossible,  and  that 
not  merely  the  exercise  of  virtue,  as  his  predecessors 
held,  but  the  mere  state  of  virtue  is  in  itself  a  splendid 
thing,^  although  no  body  possesses  virtue  without 
continuously  exercising  it.^  Also  whereas  they  did  not 
remove  emotion  out  of  humanity  altogether,  and  said 
that  sorrow  and  desire  and  fear  and  dehght  were 
natural,  but  curbed  them  and  narrowed  their  range, 
Zeno  held  that  the  wise  man  was  devoid  of  all  these 

39  '  diseases  '  '^  ;  and  whereas  the  older  generation  said 
thatthese  emotions  were  natural  andnon-rational,and 
placed  desire  and  reason  in  different  regions  of  the 
mind,  he  did  not  agree  with  these  doctrines  either, 
for  he  thought  that  even  the  emotions  were  voluntary 
and  were  experienced  owing  to  a  judgement  of 
opinion,  and  he  held  that  the  mother  of  all  the 
emotions  was  a  sort  of  intemperance  and  lack  of 
moderation.  These  more  or  less  were  his  ethical 
doctrines. 

XI.  "  His  views  as  to  the  natural  substances  ^  were  Zeno'9 
as  foUows.    First,  in  deahng  with  the  four  recognized     ^^^^ 
primary  elements  he  did  not  add  this  fifth  substance  ' 
which  his  predecessors  deemed  to  be  the  source  of 

447 


CICERO 

ddhiberet ;  statuebat  enim  ignem  esse  ipsam  naturam 
quae  quidque  gigneret,  etiam^  mentem  atque  sensus. 
Discrepabat  etiam  ab  iisdem  quod  nullo  modo 
arbitrabatur  quidquam  effici  posse  ab  ea  quae  expers 
esset  corporis,  cuius  generis  Xenocrates  et  superiores 
etiam  animum  esse  dixerant,  nec  vero  aut  quod 
efficeret  aliquid  aut  quod  efficeretur  posse  esse  non 

40  corpus.  Plurima  autem  in  illa  tertia  philosophiae 
parte  mutavit  :  in  qua  primum  de  sensibus  ipsis 
quaedam  dixit  nova,  quos  iunctos  esse  censuit  e  qua- 
dam  quasi  impulsione  oblata  extrinsecus  (quam  ille 
(fiavTacTLav,  nos  visum  appellemus  hcet,  et  teneamus 
hoc  quidem  verbum,  erit  enim  uteiidum  in  rehquo 
sermone saepius), — sed  ad  haec  quae  visa  sunt  et  quasi 
accepta  sensibus  adsensionem  adiungit  animorum 
quam   esse   vult   in   nobis   positam   et   voluntariam. 

41  Visis  non  omnibus  adiungebat  fidem  sed  iis  solum  quae 
propriam  quandam  haberent  declarationem  earum 
rerum  quae  viderentur  ;  id  autem  visum  cum  ipsum 
per  se  cerneretur,  comprendibile  —  feretis  haec  ?  " 
"  Nos  vero,"  inquit ;  "  quonam  enim  aho  modo  K-ara- 
A.7^-Toi'  diceres  ?  "  "  Sed  cum  acceptum  iam  et  appro- 
batum  esset,  comprehensionem  appellabat,  similem  iis 
rebus  quae  manu  prenderentur — ex  quo  etiara  nomen 
hoc  duxerat,  cum  eo  verbo  antea  nemo  tah  in  re  usus 
esset,  plurimisque  idem  novis  verbis  (nova  enim  dice- 
bat)  usus  est.  Quod  autem  erat  sensu  comprensum,  id 
ipsum  sensum  appellabat,  et  si  ita  erat  comprensum  ut 

^  Reid  :  et  codd. 

<»  i.e.,  a  combination  of  external  impression  or  presentation 
and  internal  assent ;  but  the  sentcnce  is  internipted  by  a 
parenthesis.  **  eudpyeia,  see  ii.  18  n. 

"  Coniprehensio  is  used  for  comprehemium,  as  /vardX7;;/'ty 
was  for  KaTaX-qTTTiKr]  (pavTaa-la.    See  ii.  145. 

448 


ACADEMICA,  I.  xi. 

sensation  ai\(l  of  intellect  ;  for  he  laid  it  down  that 
the  natural  substance  that  was  the  parent  of  all 
things,  even  of  the  senses  and  the  mind,  was  itself  fire. 
He  also  differed  from  the  same  thinkers  in  holding  that 
an  incorporeal  substance,  such  as  Xenocrates  and  the 
older  thinkers  also  had  pronounced  the  mind  to  be, 
wasincapableofanyactivity,whereasanythingcapable 
of  acting,  or  being  acted  upon  in  any  way  could  not  be 

40  incorporeal.     In  the  third  department  of  philosophy  lie  Zeno'8 
made  a  number  of  changes.    Here  first  of  all  he  made  ^n^se-iata 
some    new    pronouncements   about   sensation   itself,  j-i^f^e  i  trua 
which  he  held  to  be  a  combination  <»  of  a  sort  of  im-  cor.sHtnte 
pact  offered  from  outside  (which  he  called  pkantasia  •^nowiedsa 
and  we  may  call  a  presentation,  and  let  us  retain  this 

term  at  all  events,  for  we  shall  have  to  employ  it 
several  times  in  the  remainder  of  my  discourse), — 
well,  to  these  presentations  received  by  the  senses  lie 
joins  the  act  of  mental  assent  which  he  makes  out  to 

41  reside  within  us  and  to  be  a  voluntary  act.  He  held 
that  not  all  presentations  are  trustworthy  but  only 
those  that  have  a  '  manifestation,'  ^  peculiar  to  them- 
selves,  of  the  objects  presented  ;  and  a  trustworthy 
presentation,  being  perceived  as  such  by  its  own 
intrinsic  nature,  he  termed  '  graspable  ' — will  you 
endure  these  coinages  ?  "  "  Indeed  we  will,"  said 
Atticus,"  for  how  else  couldyou  express  '  catalepton  '  ?  " 
"  But  after  it  had  been  received  and  accepted  as  true, 
he  termed  it  a  *  grasp,'*'  resembling  objects  gripped 
in  the  hand — and  in  fact  he  had  derived  the  actual 
term  from  manual  prehension,  nobody  before  having 
used  the  Mord  in  such  a  sense,  and  he  also  used  a 
number  of  new  terms  (for  his  doctrines  were  new). 
Well,  a  thing  grasped  by  sensation  he  called  itself  a 
sensation,  and  a  sensation  so  lirmly  grasped  as  to  be 

449 


CICERO 

convelli  ratione  non  posset,  scientiam,  sin  aliter,  in- 
scientiam  nominabat,  ex  qua  exsisteret  etiam  opinio, 
quae  esset  imbecilla  et  cum  falso  incognitoque  com- 

42  munis,  Sed  inter  scientiam  et  inscientiam  com- 
prehensionem  illam  quam  dixi  coUocabat,  eamque 
neque  in  rectis  neque  in  pravis  numerabat  sed  solum 
ei^  credendum  esse  dicebat.  E  quo  sensibus  etiam 
fidem  tribuebat,  quod,  ut  supra  dixi,  comprehensio 
facta  sensibus  et  vera  esse  illi  et  fideHs  videbatur,  non 
quod  omnia  quae  essent  in  re  comprehenderet,  sed 
quia  nihil  quod  cadere  in  eam  posset  reUnqueret, 
quodque  natura  quasi  normam  scientiae  et  prin- 
cipium  sui  dedisset  unde  postea  notiones  rerum  in 
animis  imprimerentur,  e  quibus  non  principia  solum 
sed  latiores  quaedam  ad  rationem  inveniendam  viae 
aperirentur.2  Errorem  autem  et  temeritatem  et 
iffnorantiam  et  opinationem  et  suspicionem,  et  uno 
nomine  omnia  quae  essent  ahena  firmae  et  constantis 
adsensionis,  a  virtute  sapientiaque  removebat.  At- 
que  in  his  fere  commutatio  constitit  omnis  dissensio- 
que  Zenonis  a  superioribus." 

43  XII.  Quae  cum  dixisset,  "  Breviter  sane  minime- 
que  obscure  exposita  est,"  inquam,  "  a  te,  Varro,  et 
veteris  Academiae  ratio  et  Stoicorum  ;  verum  esse 
autem  arbitror,  ut  Antiocho  nostro  familiari  placebat, 
correctionem  veteris  Academiae  potius  quam  novam 
ahquam  disciphnam  putandam."  Tum  Varro,  "  Tuae 
sunt  nunc  partes,"  inquit,  "  qui  ab  antiquorum  ratione 
desciscis  et  ea  quae  ab  Arcesila  novata  sunt  probas, 

1  solum  ei  Christ :  soU  codd. 

2  Davies  :  reperiuntur  codd. 

"  The  Mss.  give  '  that  it  alone  was  credible.' 
*  A  translation  of  yvwfxuv  or  Kavibv, 

450 


ACADEMICA,  I.  xi.— xii. 

irremovable  by  reasoning  he  termed  knowledge,  but  a 
sensation  not  so  grasped  he  termed  ignorance,  and 
this  was  the  source  also  of  opinion,  an  unstable  impres- 

42  sion  akin  to  falsehood  and  ignorance.  But  as  a  stage  wisdom 
between  knowledge  and  ignorance  he  placed  that  ^° 
*  grasp  '  of  which  I  have  spoken,  and  he  reckoned  it 
neither  as  a  right  nor  as  a  wTong  impression,  but  said 
that  it  was  only  "  '  credible.*  On  the  strength  of  this 
he  deemed  the  senses  also  trustworthy,  because,  as  I 
said  above,  he  held  that  a  grasp  achieved  by  the 
senses  was  both  true  and  trustworthy,  not  because 
it  grasped  all  the  properties  of  the  thing,  but 
because  it  let  go  nothing  that  was  capable  of  being  its 
object,  and  because  nature  had  bestowed  as  it  were  a 
'  measuring-rod  '  ^  of  knowledge  and  a  first  principle 
of  itself  from  which  subsequently  notions  of  things 
could  be  impressed  upon  the  mind,  out  of  which  not 
first  principles  only  but  certain  broader  roads  to  the 
discovery  of  reasoned  truth  were  opened  up.  On  the 
other  hand  error,  rashness,  ignorance,  opinion,  sus- 
picion,  and  in  a  word  all  the  things  ahen  to  firm  and 
steady  assent,  Zeno  set  apart  from  virtue  and  wisdom. 
And  it  is  on  these  points  more  or  less  that  all  Zeno's 
departure  and  disagreement  from  the  doctrine  of  his 
predecessors  turned." 

4.3      XII.  When  he  had  said  this,  I  remarked  :    "  You  Cicero 
have  certainly  given  a  short  and  very  lucid  exposition  piSo|  ^^ 
of  the  theory  both  of  the  Old  Academy  and  of  the  '^.',9^'_ 
Stoics  ;    though  I  think  it  to  be  true,  as  our  friend  riatonism. 
Antiochus  used  to  hold,  that  the  Stoic  theory  should 
be  deemed  a  correction  of  the  Old  Academy  rather 
than  actually  a  new  system."     "  It  is  now  your  role," 
rejoined  Varro,  "  as  a  seceder  from  the  theory  of 
the  older  period  and  a  supporter  of  the  innovations 

451 


CICERO 

docere  quod  et  qua  de  causa  discidium  factum  sit,  ut 

44  videamus  satisne  ista  sit  iusta  defectio."  Tum  ego, 
**  Cum  Zenone,"  inquam,  "  ut  accepimus,  Arcesilas 
sibi  omne  certamen  instituit,  non  pertinacia  aut  studio 
vincendi,  ut  mihi  quidem  videtur,  sed  earum  rerum 
obscuritate  quae  ad  confessionem  ignorationis  ad- 
duxerant  Socratem  et  iam  ante  Socratem  Democri- 
tum,  Anaxagoram,  Empedoclem,  omnes  paene  veteres, 
qui  nihil  cognosci,  nihil  percipi,  nihil  sciri  posse  dixe- 
runt,  angustos  sensus,  imbecillos  animos,  brevia  curri- 
cula  vitae,  et,  ut  Democritus,  in  profundo  veritatem 
esse  demersam,  opinionibus  et  institutis  omnia  teneri, 
nihil  veritati  rehnqui,  deinceps  omnia  tenebris  circum- 

45  fusa  esse  dixerunt.  Itaque  Arcesilas  negabat  esse 
quidquam  quod  sciri  posset,  ne  illud  quidem  ipsum, 
quod  Socrates  sibi  rehquisset  :  sic  omnia  latere  cense- 
bat  in  occulto,  neque  esse  quidquam  quod  cemi  aut 
intellegi  posset ;  quibus  de  causis  nihil  oportere  neque 
profiteri  neque  adfirmare  quemquam  neque  adsen- 
sione  approbare,  cohibereque  semper  et  ab  omni  lapsu 
continere  temeritatem,  quae  tum  esset  insignis  cum 
aut  falsa  aut  incognita  res  approbaretur,  neque  hoc 
quidquam  esse  turpius  quam  cognitioni  et  percep- 
tioni  adsensionem  approbationemque  praecurrere. 
Huic  rationi  quod  erat  consentaneum  faciebat,  ut 
contra  omnium  sententias  disserens  in  eam^  plerosque 
deduceret,  ut  cum  in  eadem  re  paria  contrariis  in 

^  in  eam  Madvig  :  dies  iam  codd.  (de  sua  unvs). 


•  iv  ^vdt^  7]  dXrideia  Diog.  L.  ix.  72. 

*  We  do  not  even  know  that  nothing  can  be  known : 
r/.  ii.  73. 

452 


ACADEMICA,  I.  xii. 

of  Arcesilas,  to  explain  the  nature  and  the  reason  of 
the  rupture  that  took  place,  so  as  to  enable  us  to  see 

44  whether  the  secession  \vas  fully  justified."     "  It  was  Deveiop- 
entirely  \\ith  Zeno,  so  we  have  been  told,"  I  repHed,  Arc"el^iias 
"  that  Arcesilas    set  on  foot   his   battle,  not   from  J^titied ; 
obstinacy  or  desire  for  victory,  as  it  seems  to  me  at  all 
events,  but  because  of  the  obscurity  of  the  facts  that 

had  led  Socrates  to  a  confession  of  ignorance,  as  also 
previously  his  predecessors  Democritus,  Anaxagoras, 
Empedocles,  and  ahnost  all  the  old  philosophers,  who 
utterly  denied  all  possibiUty  of  cognition  or  percep- 
tion  or  knowledge,  and  maintained  that  the  senses 
are  Hmited,  the  mind  feeble,  the  span  of  hfe  short, 
and  that  truth  (in  Democritus's  phrase)  is  sunk  in 
an  abyss,"  opinion  and  custom  are  all-prevaiUng,  no 
place  is  left  for  truth,   all  things  successively   are 

45  wrapped  in  darkness.  Accordingly  Arcesilas  said 
that  there  is  nothinor  that  can  be  kno\Mi,  not  even 
that  residuum  of  knowledge  that  Socrates  had  left 
himself — the  truth  of  this  very  dictum  ^  :  so  hidden 
in  obscurity  did  he  beUeve  that  everything  Ues,  nor 
is  there  anything  that  can  be  perceived  or  under- 
stood,  and  for  these  reasons,  he  said,  no  one  must 
make  any  positive  statement  or  affirmation  or  give 
the  approval  of  his  assent  to  any  proposition,  and  a 
man  must  always  restrain  his  rashness  and  hold  it 
back  from  every  sUp,  as  it  would  be  glaring  rashness 
to  give  assent  either  to  a  falsehood  or  to  something 
not  certainly  knowTi,  and  nothing  is  more  disgrace- 
ful  than  for  assent  and  approval  to  outstrip  know- 
ledge  and  perception.  His  practice  was  consistent 
with  this  theory — he  led  most  of  his  hearers  to  accept 
it  by  arguing  against  the  opinions  of  aU  men,  so 
that  when  equally  weighty  reasons  were  found  on 

453 


CICERO 

partibus  momenta  rationum  invenirentur,  facilius  ab 
46  utraque  parte  adsensio  sustineretur.  Hanc  Acade- 
miam  novam  appellant,  quae  mihi  vetus  videtur, 
siquidem  Platonem  ex  illa  vetere  numeramus,  cuius  in 
libris  nihil  adfirmatur  et  in  utramque  partem  multa 
disseruntur,  de  omnibus  quaeritur,  nihil  certi  dicitur  ; 
sed  tamen  illa  quam  exposuisti  vetus,  haec  nova 
nominetur  ;  quae  usque  ad  Carneadem  perducta,  qui 
quartus  ab  Arcesila  fuit,  in  eadem  Arcesilae  ratione 
permansit.  Carneades  autem  nullius  philosophiae 
partis  ignarus  et,  ut  cognovi  ex  iis  qui  illum  audierant 
maximeque  ex  Epicureo  Zenone,  qui  cum  ab  eo  pluri- 
mum  dissentiret,  unum  tamen  praeter  ceteros  mira- 
batur,  incredibili  quadam  fuit  facultate.  ..." 

«  See  ii.  16. 
•  The  contemporary  of  Cicero,  who  heard  him  at  Athens. 


454 


ACADEMICA,  I.  xii. 

opposite  sides  on  the  same  subject,  it  was  easier  to 
46  witlihold  assent  from  either  side.  They  call  this  school  i^hey  were 
the  Xew  Academy, — to  me  it  seems  old,  at  all  events  Inhj 
if  we  count  Plato  a  member  of  the  Old  Academy,  in  Cameades 
Mhose  books  nothing  is  stated  positively  and  there 
is  much  arguing  both  pro  and  C07itra,  all  things  are 
inquired  into  and  no  certain  statement  is  made  ;  but 
nevertheless  let  the  Academy  that  you  expounded 
be  named  the  Old  and  this  one  the  New  ;  and  right 
do^vn  to  Carneades,  who  was  fourth  ^  in  succession 
from  Arcesilas,  it  continued  to  remain  true  to  the 
same  theory  of  Arcesilas.  Carneades  however  was 
acquainted  ^^-ith  every  department  of  philosophy,  and 
as  I  have  learnt  from  his  actual  hearers.  and  especially 
from  the  Epicurean  Zeno,^  who  though  disagree- 
ing  very  much  with  Carneades,  nevertheless  had  an 
exceptional  admiration  for  him,  he  possessed  an 
incredible  facility.  ..." 


455 


FRAGMENTA  EDITIONIS  POSTERIORIS 

LlBRI    I 

1.  No}iius  p.  65.  Digladiari  dictum  est  dissentire  et 
dissidere,  dictum  a  gladiis.  Cicero  Academicorum  lib.  I.  : 
Quid  autem  stomachatur  Mnesarchus  ?  quid  Anti- 
pater  digladiatur  cum  Carneade  tot  voluminibus  ? 

2.  Non.  p.  43  (s.v.  concinnare).  Idem  in  Academicis 
lib.  I.  :  Quicum  similitudine  verbi  concinere  maxime 
sibi  videretur  .  ,  , 

LlBRI   II 

3.  Non.  p.  65.  Aequor  ab  aequo  et  plajio  Cicero 
Academicorum  lib.  II.  vocabulum  accepisse  confirmat  : 
Quid  tam  planum  videtur  quam  mare  ?  e  quo  etiam 
aequor  illud  poetae  vocant. 

4.  Non.  p.  69-  Adamare.  Cicero  Academicorum  lib. 
II.  :  Qui  enim  serius  honores  adamaverunt  vix  ad- 
mittuntur  ad  eos  nec  satis  commendati  multitudini 
possunt  esse. 

5.  Non.  p.  104.  Exponere  pro  exempla  boni  osienfare. 
Cicero  Academicis  lib.  II.  :  Frangere  avaritiam,  scelera 
ponere,  vitam  suam  exponere  ad  imitandum  iuventuti. 

6.  Non.  p.  121.  Hebes positum  pro  obscuro  aut  obtuso. 
45G 


FRAGMENTS,  SECOND  EDITION 
From  Book  I 

1.  Digladiari  has  been  used  in  the  sense  of  '  to 
disagree,'  '  dissent  '  :  it  is  derived  from  '  swords.' 
Cicero,  Academica,  Bk.  I.  :  '  But  why  is  Mnesarchus 
resentful  ?  Why  does  Antipater  cross  swords  \vith 
Carneades  in  so  many  volumes  ?  * 

2.  {\jndeY concinnare.)  The  same  author  in-4cG<fe/w2ca 
Bk.  I.  :  *  With  whom  by  reason  of  the  similarity  of 
the  word  he  seemed  to  himself  to  be  completely  in 
harmony  .  ,  .* 

From  Book  II 

S.  The  view  that  aequor  is  derived  from  aequum, 

*  level,'  is  supported  by  Cicero,  Academica,  Book  II.  : 

*  What  seems  so  level  as  the  sea  ?     This  is  actually 
the  reason  why  the  word  for  it  in  poetry  is  aequor.' 

4.  Adamare.  '  For  those  who  have  fallen  in  love 
■sWth  office  too  late  gain  admission  to  it  with  diffi- 
culty,  and  cannot  be  enough  in  favour  with  the 
multitude.' 

5.  Exponere  meaning  '  to  show  examples  of  good  ': 

*  To   crush  avarice,  to  put  away  crime,  to   exhibit 
OJie's  own  hfe  for  the  young  to  imitate.' 

6.  Hebes,  *  dull,'  used  in  the  sense  of  '  dark,'   or 

457 


CICERO 

Cicero  Academ.  lib.  II.  :  Quid  ?  lunae  quae  liniamenta 
sunt  ?  potesne  dicere  ?  cuius  et  nascentis  et  senescen- 
tis  alias  hebetiora,  alias  acutiora  videntur  cornua. 

7.  Non.  p.  162.  Purpurascit.  Cicero  Acad.  lih.  II.  : 
Quid  ?  mare  nonne  caeruleum  ?  at  eius  unda  cum 
est  pulsa  remis  purpurascit,  et  quidem  aquae  tinctum 
quodam  mxodo  et  infectum  .  .  . 

8.  Non.  p.  162.  Perpendicula  et  normae.  Cicero 
Acad.  lib.  II.  :  Atqui  si  id  crederemus,  non  egeremus 
perpendiculis,  non  normis,  non  regulis. 

9.  Non.  p.  394-.  Siccuni  dicitur  aridum  et  sine  humore. 
.  .  .  Siccum  dicitur  et  sohrium,  immadidum.  Cicero 
Acad.  lib.  II.  :  Alius  (color)  adultis,  alius  adules- 
centibus,  alius  aegris,  <alius  sanis>,  alius  siccis,  alius 
vinulentis. 

10.  Non.  p.  474.  Urinantur.  Cicero  in  Academicis 
lib.  II.  :  Si  quando  enim  nos  demersimus  ut  qui 
urinantur,  aut  nihil  superum  aut  obscure  admodum 
cernimus. 

11.  Non.  p.  545.  Alabaster.  Cicero  Acad.  lib.  II.  : 
Quibus  etiam  alabaster  plenus  unguenti  puter  esse 
videtur. 

LlBRI   III 

12.  Non.  p.  65.  Digladiari  .  .  .  idem  tertio  :  Di- 
gladiari  autem  semper  et  depugnare  in  facinorosis  et 
audacibus  quis  non  cum  miserrimimi  tum  etiam  stultis- 
simum  dixerit  ? 

13.  Non.  p.  Q5.  Exultare  dictum  est  exilire.  Cicero 
Acad.  lib.  III.  :  Et  ut  nos  nunc  sedemus  ad  Lucrinum 
pisciculosque  exultantes  videmus  .  .  . 

14.  Non.  p.  123.  Ingeneraretur  ut  innasceretur. 
Cicero  Acad.  lib.  III.  :  In  tanta  ammantium  varietate 
458 


ACADEMICA,  fragments,  edition  2 

else  '  blunt  '  :  '  Well,  what  are  the  outUnes  of  the 
moon  ?  Can  you  say  ?  The  horns  of  the  moon 
both  when  rising  and  setting  sometimes  seem  duller, 
sometimes  sharper.' 

7.  Purpurascit.  '  What,  is  not  the  sea  blue  ?  But 
when  its  water  is  struck  by  oars  it  purples,  and  indeed 
a  sort  of  dye  and  stain  having  come  to  the  water's  .  . ,' 

8.  Perpendicula  and  normae.  *  Yet  if  we  beUeved 
that,  we  should  not  require  plumbUnes  or  rods  or 
rulers.' 

9.  'S/ccwmmeans  ■  driedup/ devoidof  moisture.  .  .  . 
Siccum  also  means  *  sober,'  not  a  soaker.  '  We 
notice  a  different  complexion  in  grown-up  people  and 
the  young,  in  invalids  and  the  healthy,  in  the  dry  and 
in  ^^ine-bibbers.' 

10.  Urinantur.  *  For  whenever  we  stoop  hke  men 
making  water,  we  see  nothing  above  us  or  only  quite 
dimly.' 

11.  Alabaster.  '  People  who  think  even  a  scent- 
bottle  full  of  perfume  a  stinking  thing.* 


From  Book  III 

12.  Digladiari.  .  .  .  Cicero  also  writes  in  Book  III.  l 
*  But  to  be  always  crossing  swords  and  fighting  to 
the  end  among  criminals  and  desperadoes — who 
would  not  call  this  a  most  pitiable  and  also  a  most 
foohsh  occupation  ?  ' 

13.  Exultare  means  *  to  jump  out.'  '  And  just  as 
we  are  now  sitting  by  the  Lucrine  Lake  and  see  the 
httle  fishes  jumping  out  of  the  water  .  .  .' 

14.  Ingeneraretur  in  the  sense  of  '  might  be  born 
in.'     *  That  in  man  alone  among  all  this  variety  of 

459 


CICERO 

homini  ut  soli  cupiditas  ingeneraretur  cognitionis  et 
scientiae! 

15.  Xon.  p.  419.  Findicare,  trahere,  liherare.  .  .  . 
Cicero  Acad.  lih.  III.  :  Aliqua  potestas  sit,  vindicet  se 
in  libertatem. 

16.  Lactant.  Inst.  vi.  24.  Cicero  .  .  .  cuius  kaec  in 
Academico  tertio  verba  sunt  :  Quod  si  liceret,  ut  iis 
qui  in  itinere  deerra\-issent,  sic  vitam  deviam  secutis 
corrigere  errorem  paenitendo,  facilior  esset  emendatio 
temeritatis. 

17.  Diomedes  p.  377  ed.  Keil.  Varro  ad  Ciceronem 
tertio  fixum  et  Cicero  Academicorum  tertio  malcho  in 
opera  adfixa. 


LlBRORUM    INCERTORUM 

18.  Laciant.  Inst.  iii.  14.  Haec  tua  verba  sunt 
(Cicero)  :  Mihi  autem  non  modo  ad  sapientiam  caeci 
videmur  sed  ad  ea  ipsa  quae  aliqua  ex  parte  cerni 
videantur  hebetes  et  obtusi. 

19-  Augustin.  c.  Academicos  ii.  26  TaUa,  inquit 
Academicus,  mihi  videntur  omnia  quae  probabiha  vel 
veri  simiha  putavi  nominanda  ;  quae  tu  si  aho  nomine 
vis  vocare,  nihil  repugno,  satis  enim  mihi  est  te  iam 
bene  accepisse  quid  dicam,  id  est,  quibus  rebus  haec 
nomina  imponam  :  non  enim  vocabulorum  opificem 
sed  rerum  inquisitorem  decet  esse  sapientem. 

20.  August.  c.  Acad.  iii.  15  sq.  Est  in  libris  Ciceronis 
quos  in  huius  causae  patrocinium  scripsit  locus  quidam, 
ut  mihi  videtur,  mira  urbanitate  coiiditus,  ut  non  nullis 


"  Malleo,  Reid's  conjecture  for  the  unknown  word  malcho 
ot  the  MS8. 
460 


ACADEMICA,  fragments,  editiox  2 

living  creatiires  might  be  born  a  desire  for  learning 
and  knowledge.' 

15.  Jlndicare  *  to  draw,'  '  to  set  free.'  '  Let  him 
show  some  capacity,  let  him  champion  himself  into 
freedom.' 

16.  Cicero  .  .  .  who  in  his  third  Academic  volume 
has  these  words  :  '  Whereas  if  those  who  have  pur- 
sued  a  devious  path  in  hfe  were  allowed,  hke  travellers 
Mho  had  wandered  from  the  road,  to  remedy  their 
mistake  by  repenting,  the  correction  of  recklessness 
would  be  easier.' 

17.  Varro  in  his  third  book  dedicated  to  Cicero  uses 
Jiinm,  and  Cicero  in  Academica,  Book  III.  *  adfixed  on 

the  work  \vith  a  hammer.'  ^ 


Fragments  of  uncertain  Context 

18.  These  are  your  own  words,  (Cicero)  :  *  To  me 
however  we  seem  not  only  bhnd  to  wisdom  but  dull 
and  blunted  even  towards  things  that  are  in  some 
measure  visible.* 

19-  '  Such,'  says  the  Academic  speaker,  '  seem  to 
me  to  be  all  the  things  that  I  have  thought  fit  to 
entitle  "  probable  "  or  possessed  of  verisimihtude  ; 
if  you  want  to  call  them  by  another  name  I  make  no 
objection,  for  it  satisfies  me  that  you  have  ah-eady 
well  grasped  my  meaning,  that  is,  the  things  to  which 
I  assign  these  names  :  since  it  becomes  the  wise  man 
to  be  not  a  manufacturer  of  w^ords  but  a  researcher 
into  things.' 

20.  The  books  of  Cicero  that  he  wrote  to  champion 
this  cause  contain  a  certain  passage  that  seems  to  me 
to  have  a  remarkably  witty  flavour,  while  some  people 

4.61 


CICERO 

autem,  etiam  firmitate  roboraius.  Difficile  est  prorsus  ut 
quemquam  non  moveat  quod  ibi  dictum  est,  Academico 
sapienti  ab  omnibus  ceterarum  sectarum  qui  sibi 
sapientes  videntur  secundas  partes  dari,  cum  primas 
sibi  quemque  vindicare  necesse  sit ;  ex  quo  posse 
probabiliter  confici  eum  recte  primum  esse  suo  iudicio 
qui  omnium  ceterorum  iudicio  sit  secundus. 

21.  August.  c.  Acad.  iii.  20.  43  Ait  enim  (Cicero) 
illis  morem  fuisse  occultandi  sententiam  suam  nec 
eam  cuiquam  nisi  qui  secum  ad  senectutem  usque 
vixissent  aperire  consuesse. 

22.  August.  de  civ.  Dei  vi.  2  Denique  et  ipse  Tullius 
huic  (M.  Varroni)  tale  testimonium  perhibet  ut  in  libris 
Academicis  dicat  eam  quae  ibi  versatur  disputationem  se 
habuisse  cum  M.  Varrone,  homine,  inquit,  omnium 
facile  acutissimo  et  sine  ulla  dubitatione  doctissimo. 


462 


ACADEMICA,  fragmfats,  edition  2 

think  it  actiially  a  powerful  and  strong  piece  of -v^Titing. 
Indeed  it  is  hard  to  see  how  anybody  could  fail  to 
be  impressed  by  what  is  said  there,  that  '  the  Wise 
Man  of  the  Academy  is  given  the  second  role  by  all 
the  adherents  of  the  other  schools  that  seem  wise 
in  their  own  eyes,  though  of  course  they  each  claim 
the  first  part  for  themselves ;  and  that  from  this  the 
probable  inference  may  be  drawn  that,  since  he  is 
second  by  everybody  else's  verdict,  his  own  verdict  is 
right  in  placing  him  first.' 

[There  follows  a  page  of  imaginary  dialogue  be- 
tween  Zeno,  Epicurus  and  an  Academic,  which  some 
editors  print  as  a  verbatim  quotation  from  Cicero  ; 
but  the  style  makes  this  unhkely,  and  it  is  not  intro- 
duced  as  a  quotation,  as  is  the  passage  above.] 

21.  For  he  (Cicero)  says  that  they  '  had  a  habit  of 
conceahng  their  opinion,  and  did  not  usually  disclose 
it  to  anybody  except  those  that  had  hved  with  them 
right  up  to  old  age.' 

22.  Finally  Tully  himself  also  bears  such  witness 
to  this  man  (Marcus  Varro)  as  to  say  in  Academica  that 
the  discussion  there  set  out  took  place  between  him- 
self  and  Marcus  Varro,  '  a  person  who  was  easily  the 
most  penetrating  of  all  men,  and  without  any  doubt 
extremely  learned.' 


463 


LIBER  SECUNDUS.     LUCULLUS 

(editio  prior) 

1  1.  Magnum  mgenium  L.  Luculli  magnumque  opti- 
marum  artium  studium,  tum  omnis  liberalis  et  digna 
liomine  nobili  ab  eo  percepta  doctrina,  quibus  tem- 
poribus  florere  in  foro  maxime  potuit  caruit  omnino 
rebus  urbanis.  Ut  enim  admodum  adulescens  cum 
fratre  pari  pietate  et  industria  praedito  paternas 
inimicitias  magna  cum  gloria  est  persecutus,  in  Asiam 
quaestor  profectus  ibi  permultos  annos  admirabili 
quadam  laude  provinciae  praefuit ;  deinde  absens 
factus  aedilis,  continuo  praetor  (licebat  enim  celerius 
legis  praemio),  post  in  Africam,  inde  ad  consulatum, 
quem  ita  gessit  ut  diligentiam  admirarentur  omnes, 
ingenium  agnoscerent.  Post  ad  Mithridaticum  bel- 
lum  missus  a  senatu  non  modo  opinionem  vicit 
omnium  quae  de  virtute  eius  erat  sed  etiam  gloriam 

2  superiorum  ;  idque  eo  fuit  mirabilius  quod  ab  eo  laus 

"  This  Book  belongs  to  the  first  edition  of  the  work  (in 
which  it  was  dedicated  to  Lucullus  and  entitled  by  his 
name),  and  it  is  therefore  designated  Academica  Priora  by 
some  editors. 

^  The  elder  Lucullus  had  been  tried  and  found  guilty  of 
misconduct  when  commanding  in  the  slave-war  in  Sicilj-, 
103  B.c.  His  sons  (in  accordance  with  the  Roman  sentiment 
of  filial  duty)  did  their  best  to  ruin  his  prosecutor  Servilius. 

*  Probably  Sulla,  when  re-enacting  the  old  lex  annalis  by 
his  lex  de  magistratibus,  inserted  a  clause  exempting  his  own 
oflBcers  as  a  special  privilege,  to  reward  their  services. 
464 


BOOK  II.«     LUCULLUS 

ANTIOCnUs's    ATTACK    ON   SCEPTICISM    EXPOUNDED    AND 
ANSWERED 

1  L  The  great  talents  of  Lucius  Lucullus  and  his  intro- 
great  devotion  to  the  best  sciences,  with  all  his  ac-  lucuSus 
quisitions  in  that  hberal  learning  which  becomes  a  the  schoiar- 
person  of  high  station,  were  entirely  cut  off  from 

pubUc  hfe  at  Rome  in  the  period  when  he  might  have 
won  the  greatest  distinction  at  the  bar.  For  when 
as  quite  a  youth,  in  co-operation  with  a  brother 
possessed  of  equal  fihal  affection  and  devotion,  he 
had  carried  on  with  great  distinction  the  personal 
feuds  of  his  father,^  he  went  out  as  quaestor  to  Asia, 
and  there  for  a  great  many  years  presided  over  the 
pro\ince  \Wth  quite  remarkable  credit  ;  then  in  his 
absence  he  was  elected  aedile,  and  next  praetor  (since 
by  a  statutory  grant  ^  this  was  permitted  before  the 
usual  time)  ;  later  he  was  appointed  to  Africa,  and 
then  to  the  consulship,  which  he  so  administered 
as  to  win  universal  admiration  for  his  devotion  to 
duty  and  universal  recognition  of  his  abihty.  Later 
the  senate  commissioned  him  to  the  war  with  Mithri- 
dates,^  in  which  he  not  only  surpassed  everybody's 
previous  estimation  of  his  valour  but  even  the  glory 

2  of  his  predecessors  ;   and  this  was  the  more  remark- 

^  The  third   Mithridatic  War,  beginning  74  b.c,  when 
LucuUus  was  consul. 

465 


CICERO 

imperatoria  non  adniodum  exspectabatur  qui  adules- 
centiam  in  forensi  opera,  quaesturae  diuturnimi 
tempus  Murena  bellum  in  Ponto  gerente  in  Asia  pace 
consumpserat.  Sed  incredibilis  quaedam  ingenii 
magnitudo  non  desideravit  indocilem  usus  disciplinam, 
Itaque  cum  totum  iter  et  navigationem  consumpsisset 
partim  in  percontando  a  peritis,  partim  in  rebus  gestis 
legendis,  in  Asiam  factus  imperator  venit,  cum  esset 
Roma  profectus  rei  militaris  rudis.  Habuit  enim 
divinam  quandam  memoriam  rerum,  verborum  ma- 
iorem  Hortensius,  sed  quo  pius  in  negotiis  gerendis  res 
quam  verba  prosunt,  hoc  erat  memoria  illa  prae- 
stantior ;  quam  fuisse  in  Themistocle,  quem  facile 
Graeciae  principem  ponimus,  singularem  ferunt,  qui 
quidem  etiam  pollicenti  cuidam  se  artem  ei  memoriae 
quae  tum  primumproferebaturtraditurum  respondisse 
dicitur  obHvisci  se  malle  discere — credo  quod  haere- 
bant  in  memoria  quaecumque  audierat  et  viderat. 
Tah  ingenio  praeditus  Lucullus  adiunxerat  etiam 
illam  quam  Themistocles  spreverat  discipHnam, 
itaque,  ut  htteris  consignamus  quae  monumentis 
mandare  volumus,  sic  ille  in  animo  res  insculptas 
S  habebat.  Tantus  ergo  imperator  in  omni  genere  belli 
fuit,  proehis,  oppugnationibus,  navahbus  pugnis, 
totiusque  belU  instrumento  et  adparatu,  ut  ille  rex 
post  Alexandrum  maxumus  hunc  a  se  maiorem  ducem 
cognitum    quam    quemquam    eorum    quos    legisset 


"  The  second  Mithridatic  War,  83-82  b.c. 

^  i.e.,  the  training  provided  by  experience  and  not  by 
study. 

"  The  lyric  poet  Simonides  of  Ceos  (556-467  b.c),  the 
inventor  of  the  system. 

"  Mil^hridates  the  Great  (120-63  b.c),  king  of  Pontus. 
466. 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  i. 

able  because  military  distinction  was  not  particularly 
anticipated  from  one  who  had  spent  his  youth  in 
practice  at  the  bar,  and  the  long  period  of  his  quaestor- 
ship  peacefully  in  Asia,  \vhile  ^lurena  was  carrying 
on  the  war  in  Pontus."  But  intellectual  gifts  that 
even  surpassed  belief  had  no  need  of  the  unschooled 
training  that  is  given  by  experience.^  Accordingly 
after  spending  the  whole  of  his  journeyby  land  and  sea 
pai'tly  in  cross-questioning  those  who  were  experts 
and  partly  in  reading  military  history,  he  arrived  in 
Asia  a  made  general,  although  he  had  started  from 
Rome  a  tiro  in  military  matters.  For  he  had  a  memory 
for  facts  that  was  positively  inspired,  although  Hor- 
tensius  had  a  better  memory  for  words,  but  Lucullus's 
memory  was  the  more  valuable,  inasmuch  as  in  the 
conduct  of  business  facts  are  of  more  assistance  than 
words  ;  and  this  form  of  memory  is  recorded  as  having 
been  present  in  a  remarkable  degree  in  Themistocles, 
whom  we  rank  as  easily  the  greatest  man  of  Greece, 
and  of  whom  the  story  is  told  that  when  somebody  ^ 
offered  to  impart  to  him  the  meinoria  tech?iica  that  was 
then  first  coming  into  vogue,  he  replied  that  he 
would  sooner  learn  to  forget — no  doubt  this  was  be- 
cause  whatever  he  heard  or  saw  remained  fixed  in  his 
memory.  Gifted  with  such  natural  endowments, 
Lucullus  had  also  added  the  training  which  Themi- 
stocles  had  despised,  and  thus  he  kept  facts  engraved 
on  his  mind  just  as  we  enshrine  in  writing  things 
3  that  we  desire  to  record.  Consequently  he  was  so 
great  a  commander  in  every  class  of  warfare,  battles, 
sieges,  sea-fights,  and  in  the  entire  field  of  military 
equipment  and  commissariat,  that  the  greatest  king  <* 
since  the  time  of  Alexander  admitted  that  he  had 
discovered  Lucullus  to  be  a  greater  general  than  any 

467 


CICERO 

fateretur.  In  eodem  tanta  prudentia  fuit  in  constitu- 
endis  temperandisque  civitatibus,  tanta  aequitas,  ut 
hodie  stet  Asia  Luculli  institutis  servandis  et  quasi 
vestigiis  persequendis.  Sed  etsi  magna  cum  utilitate 
rei  publicae,  tamen  diutius  quam  vellem  tanta  vis 
virtutis  atque  ingeni  peregrinata  afuit  ab  oculis  et 
fori  et  curiae.  Quin  etiam  cum  victor  a  Mithridatico 
bello  revertisset,  inimicorum  calumnia  triennio  tar- 
dius  quam  debuerat  triumpha\dt ;  nos  enim  consules 
introduximus  paene  in  urbem  currum  clarissimi  viri ; 
cuius  mihi  consilium  et  auctoritas  quid  tum  in 
maximis  rebus  profuissent^  dicerem  nisi  de  me  ipso 
dicendum  esset,  quod  hoc  tempore  non  est  necesse  ; 
itaque  privabo  potius  illum  debito  testimonio  quam 
id  cum  mea  laude  communicem. 
4  II.  Sed  quae  populari  gloria  decorari  in  LucuUo 
debueruntj  ea  fere  sunt  et  Graecis  Utteris  celebrata 
et  Latinis.  Nos  autem  illa  externa  cum  multis,  haec 
interiora  cum  paucis  ex  ipso  saepe  cognovimus  ; 
maiore  enim  studio  Lucullus  cum  omni  htterarum 
generi  tum  philosophiae  deditus  fuit  quam  qui  illum 
ignorabant  arbitrabantur,  nec  vero  ineunte  aetate 
solum  sed  et  pro  quaestore  aUquot  annos  et  in  ipso 
bello,  in  quo  ita  magna  rei  miUtaris  esse  occupatio 
solet  ut  non  multum  imperatori  sub  ipsis  pelHbus 
otii  rehnquatur.     Cum  autem  e  philosophis  ingenio 

*  profuhs,rA  codd.  ffire  omnes. 

•  At  the  end  of  67  b.c. 

^  Cicero  is  doubtless  thinkin^  cliiefly  of  the  suppression 
of  thc  revolutionary  conspiracy  led  by  Catihne. 
468 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  i.— ii. 

ol"  those  that  he  had  read  of.  He  also  possessed  so 
miich  wisdom  and  justice  in  the  work  of  estabhshing 
and  reforminggovernments  that  Asia  to-day  continues 
to  observe  the  institutions  and  follow  in  the  footsteps 
of  Lucullus.  But  although  greatly  to  the  advantage 
of  the  state,  nevertheless  those  vast  powers  of  char- 
acter  and  of  intellect  were  absent  abroad,  out  of  the 
sight  of  both  the  law-courts  and  the  senate,  for  a 
longer  time  than  I  could  have  wished.  Moreover 
when  he  returned  "  victorious  from  the  Mithridatic 
War,  the  chicanery  of  his  enemies  postponed  his 
triumph  three  years  later  than  it  ought  to  have  taken 
place  ;  for  it  was  I  as  consul  who  virtually  led  into 
the  city  the  chariot  of  this  glorious  hero,  of  the  value 
to  me  of  whose  advice  and  influence  at  that  period  in 
the  most  important  affairs  ^  I  might  speak  if  it  did 
not  involve  speaking  about  myself,  which  at  this  time 
is  not  necessary  ;  and  so  I  will  rob  him  of  the  tribute 
due  to  him  r.-ther  than  combine  it  with  my  own  praise. 
4  II.  However,  the  things  in  LucuUus^s  career  that 
deserved  the  honour  of  a  national  celebration  have 
fairly  well  won  their  tribute  of  fame  in  both  Greek 
and  Latin  records.  But  my  knowledge  of  these  facts 
about  his  pubhc  life  I  share  with  many  persons  ;  the 
following  more  private  details  I  have  often  learnt 
from  himself  in  company  with  few  others — for 
Lucullus  was  more  ardently  devoted  both  to  letters 
of  all  sorts  and  to  philosophy  than  persons  who  did 
not  know  him  supposed,  and  indeed  not  only  at  an 
early  age  but  also  for  some  years  during  his  pro- 
quaestorship,  and  even  on  active  service,  when 
miHtary  duties  are  usually  so  engrossing  as  to  leave 
a  commander  not  much  leisure  when  actually  under 
canvas.     But  as  Philo's  pupil  Antiochus  was  deemed 

4,69 


CICERO 

scientiaque  putaretur  Antiochus  Philonis  auditor 
excellere,  eum  secum  et  quaestor  habuit  et  post 
aliquot  annos  imperator,  quique  esset  ea  memoria 
quam  ante  dixi,  ea  saepe  audiendo  facile  cogno^it 
quae  vel  semel  audita  meminisse  potuisset.  Delecta- 
batur  autem  miritice  lectione  librorum  de  quibus 
audiebat.^ 

6  Ac  vereor  interdum  ne  talium  personarum  cum 
amplificare  veUm  minuam  etiam  gloriam.  Sunt  enim 
multi  qui  omnino  Graecas  non  ament  litteras,  plures 
qui  philosophiam ;  rehqui-  etiam  si  haec  non  impro- 
bant,^  tamen  earum  rerum  disputationem  principibus 
civitatis  non  ita  decoram  putant.*  Ego  autem  cum 
Graecas  htteras  M.  Catonem  in  senectute  didicisse 
acceperim,  P.  autem  Africani  historiae  loquantur 
in  legatione  illa  nobiU  quam  ante  censuram  obiit 
Panaetium  unum  omnino  comitem  fuisse,  nec  httera- 
rum  Graecarum  nec  philosophiae  iam  ullum  auctorem 

6  requiro.  Restat  ut  iis  respondeam  qui  sermonibus 
eius  modi  noUnt  personas  tam  graves  inhgari.  Quasi 
vero  clarorum  virorum  aut  tacitos  congressus  esse 
oporteat  aut  ludicros  sermones  aut  rerum  conloquia 
leviorum  !  Etenim  si  quodam  in  Hbro  vere  est  a  nobis 
philosophia  laudata,  profecto  eius  tractatio  optimo 
atque  ampUssimo  quoque  dignissima  est,  nec  quid- 

*  audierat  Ernefiti.  ^  reliqiii  qui  codd.  multi. 

2  ed.  :  improbent  codd. 

*  •pnXjeJit  codd.  fere  omnes. 

"  To  the  kings  of  Egypt  and  Asia  in  alliance  with  Rome, 
144  B.c.     Scipio  Africanus  Minor  was  censor  143  b.c. 

^  Cicero's  Hortensius. 
470 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  ii. 

the  cliief  among  philosopliers  for  intellcet  and  learn- 
ino;,  he  kept  him  in  his  company  both  when  qiiaestor 
and  when  a  few  years  later  he  became  general,  and 
having  the  powerful  memory  that  I  have  spoken  of 
ah-eady  he  easily  learnt  from  frequent  repetition 
doctrines  that  he  would  have  been  quite  capable  of 
learning  froni  a  single  hearing.  Moreover,  he  took 
a  marvellous  dehght  in  reading  the  books  about 
which  Antiochus  used  to  discourse  to  him. 

6  And  I  am  sometimes  afraid  lest  in  regard  to  men 
of  this  character  my  desire  to  magnify  their  fame 
may  actually  diminish  it.  For  there  are  many  people 
wlio  have  no  love  for  Greek  hterature  at  all,  and  more 
who  have  none  for  philosophy  ;  while  the  residue 
even  if  they  do  not  disapprove  of  these  studies  never- 
theless  think  that  the  discussion  of  such  topics  is 
not  specially  becoming  for  great  statesmen.  But  for 
my  own  part,  as  I  have  been  told  that  Marcus  Cato 
learnt  Greek  Uterature  in  his  old  age,  while  history 
states  that  Pubhus  Africanus,  on  the  famous  embassy  " 
on  which  he  went  before  his  censorship,  had  Panaetius 
as  absolutely  the  sole  member  of  his  staff,  I  need 
not  look  any  further  for  someone  to  support  the 
claims  either  of  Greek  hterature  or  of  philosophy. 

6  It  remains  for  me  to  reply  to  the  critics  who   are  Combina. 
unwilhng  to  have  pubhc  characters  of  such  dignity  study  and 
entangled  in  conversations  of  this  nature.     As  if  for-  ?5'^'r  ^^ 
sooth  persons  of  distinction  ought  to  hold  their  meet-  iradition 
ings  in  silence,  or  else  engage  in  frivolous  conversa-  [-fg^^'"*" 
tion  or  discussion  on  hghter  topics  !     In  fact,  if  there 
is  truth  in  the  praise  of  philosophy  that  occupies  a 
certain  volume  ^  of  mine,  it  is  obvious  that  its  pursuit 
is  supremely  worthy  of  all  persons  of  the  highcst 
character  and  eminence,  and  the  only  precaution  that 

471 


CICERO 

quam  aliud  videndum  est  nobis  quos  populus  Romanus 
hoc  in  gradu  conlocavit  nisi  ne  quid  privatis  studiis 
de  opera  publica  detrahamus.  Quodsi  cum  fungi 
munere  debebamus  non  modo  operam  nostram  num- 
quam  a  populari  coetu  removimus  sed  ne  Utteram 
quidem  ullam  fecimus  nisi  forensem,  quis  reprendet 
otium  nostrum,  qui  in  eo  non  modo  nosmet  ipsos 
hebescere  et  languere  nolumus  sed  etiam  ut  plurimis 
prosimus  enitimur  ?  Gloriam  vero  non  modo  non 
minui  sed  etiam  augeri  arbitramur  eorum  quorum 
ad  popularis  inlustrisque  laudes  has  etiam  minus 
7  notas  minusque  pervolgatas  adiungimus.  Sunt  etiam 
qui  negent  in  iis  qui  in  nostris  Ubris  disputent  fuisse 
earum  rerum  de  quibus  disputatur  scientiam  :  qui 
mihi  videntur  non  solum  vivis  sed  etiam  mortuis 
invidere. 

III.  Restat  unum  genus  reprehensorum  quibus 
Academiae  ratio  non  probatur.  Quod  gravius  ferre- 
mus  si  quisquam  ullam  discipUnam  philosophiae  pro- 
baret  praeter  eam  quam  ipse  sequeretur.  Nos  autem 
quoniam  contra  omnes  dicere  quae^  videntur  solemus, 
non  possumus  quin  aUi  a  nobis  dissentiant  recusare  : 
quamquam  nostra  quidem  causa  faciUs  est,  qui  verum 
invenire  sine  uUa  contentione  volumus  idque  summa 
cura  studioque  conquirimus.  Etsi  enim  omnis  cog- 
nitio  multis  est  obstructa  difficultatibus,  eaque  est  et 
in  ipsis  rebus  obscuritas  et  in  iudiciis  nostris  infirmitas 

^  dicere  quae  Reid :  qui  dicere  quae  codd.,  qui  scire  sibi 
Caut. 

"  ?*.<?.,  the  dramatis  personae  of  the  dialoprues  that  foUow, 
"   C'f.   'preach  Christ  of  contention,'   Philippians  i.   16, 

and  Hebrews  i.  3,  Thesanlonians  ii.  2. 

472 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  ii.— iii. 

need  be  observed  by  us  whom  the  Roman  nation  has 
j^laced  in  this  rank  is  to  prevent  our  private  studies 
tVom  encroaching  at  all  upon  our  pubhc  interest. 
But  if  at  the  time  when  we  had  official  duties  to 
perform  we  not  only  never  removed  our  interest 
from  the  national  assembly  but  never  even  put  pen 
to  paper  save  on  matters  of  pubhc  business,  who 
will  criticize  our  leisure,  if  therein  we  not  only  are 
reluctant  to  allow  ourselves  to  grow  dull  and  slack 
but  also  strive  to  be  of  service  to  the  greatest  number 
of  men  ?  At  the  same  time  in  our  judgement  we  are 
not  merely  not  diminishing  but  actually  increasing 
the  fame  of  those  persons  "  to  whose  pubhc  and  dis- 
tinguished  glories  we  also  append  these  less  known 
7  and  less  well  advertised  claims  to  distinction.  There 
are  also  people  who  declare  that  the  personages  who 
debate  in  our  books  did  not  really  possess  a  know- 
ledge  of  the  subjects  debated  ;  but  these  critics  to 
my  eye  appear  to  be  jealous  of  the  dead  as  well  as  of 
the  living. 

III.  There  remains  one  class  of  adverse  critics  who  xhe 
do  not  approve  the  Academic  system  of  philosophy.  nhUosophy 
This  would  trouble  us  more  if  anybody  approved  any  :efended 
set  of  doctrines  except  the  one  of  which  he  himself  iio|Satism. 
was  a  follower.     But  for   our  part,  since  it  is  our 
habit  to  put  forward  our  views  in  conflict  with  all 
schools,  we  cannot  refuse  to  allow  others  to  differ  from 
us  ;   although  we  at  all  events  have  an  easy  brief  to 
argue,  who  desire  to  discover  the  truth  without  any 
contention,^  and  who  pursue  it  ^\ith  the  fuUest  dih- 
gence  and  devotion.     For  even  though  many  diffi- 
culties  hinder  every  branch  of  knowledge,  and  both 
the  subjects  themselves  and  our  faculties  of  judge- 
ment  involve  such  a  lack  of  certainty  that  the  most 

473 


CICERO 

ut  non  sine  causa  antiquissimi  et  doctissimi  invenire 
se  posse  quod  cuperent  diffisi  sint,  tamen  nec  illi 
defecerunt  neque  nos  studium  exquirendi  defatigati 
relinquemus  ;  neque  nostrae  disputationes  quidquam 
aliud  agunt  nisi  ut  in  utramque  partem  dicendo 
eliciant   et   tamquam   exprimant   aliquid   quod  aut 

8  verum  sit  aut  ad  id  quam  proxime  accedat.  Nec 
inter  nos  et  eos  qui  se  scire  arbitrantur  quidquam 
interest  nisi  quod  illi  non  dubitant  quin  ea  vera  sint 
quae  defendunt,  nos  probabilia  multa  habemus,  quae 
sequi  facile,  adfirmare  vix  possumus  ;  hoc  autem 
liberiores  et  solutiores  sumus  quod  integra  nobis  est 
iudicandi  potestas  nec  ut  omnia  quae  praescripta  a 
quibusdam  et  quasi  imperata  sint  defendamus  neces- 
sitate  uUa  cogimur.  Nam  ceteri  primum  ante  tenentur 
adstricti  quam  quid  esset  optimum  iudicare  potue- 
runt,  deinde  infirmissimo  tempore  aetatis  aut  ob- 
secuti  amico  cuipiam  aut  una  alicuius  quem  primum 
audierunt  oratione  capti  de  rebus  incognitis  iudicant, 
et  ad  quamcumque  sunt  disciplinam  quasi  tempestate 
delati   ad   eam   tamquam   ad  saxum   adhaerescunt. 

9  Nam  quod  dicunt  omnino  se  credere  ei  quem  iudicent 
fuisse  sapientem,probarem  si  id  ipsumrudes  et  indocti 
iudicare  potuissent  (statuere  enim  qui  sit  sapiens  vel 
maxime  videtur  esse  sapientis)  ;  sed,  ut  potuerint,^ 
potuerunt  omnibus  rebus  auditis,  cognitis  etiam  re- 

^  potuerint  inseruit  Lambinus. 

"  Exprimant,  a  metaphor  from  sculpture ;  no  doubt  the 
word  properly  denotcd  the  preUminary  model  in  clay. 
474 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  iii. 

ancient  and  learned  thinkers  liad  good  reason  for 
distrusting  tlieir  ability  to  discover  what  they  desired, 
nevertheless  they  did  not  give  up,  nor  yet  will  we 
abandon  in  exhaustion  our  zeal  for  research  ;  and 
the  sole  object  of  our  discussions  is  by  arguing  on 
both  sides  to  draw  out  and  give  shape  to^*  some  result 
that  may  be  eitlier  true  or  the  nearest  possible  ap- 

8  proximation  to  the  truth.  Nor  is  there  any  difference 
between  ourselves  and  those  who  think  that  they 
have  positive  knowledge  except  that  they  have  no 
doubt  that  their  tenets  are  true,  whereas  we  hold 
many  doctrines  as  probable,  which  we  can  easily  act 
upon  but  can  scarcely  advance  as  certain  ;  yet  we  are 
more  free  and  untrammeiled  in  that  we  possess  our 
power  of  judgement  uncurtailed,  and  are  bound  by 
no  compulsion  to  support  all  the  dogmas  laid  down 
for  us  ahnost  as  edicts  by  certain  masters.  For  all 
other  people  in  the  first  place  are  held  in  close  bond- 
age  placed  upon  them  before  they  were  able  to  judge 
what  doctrine  was  the  best,  and  secondly  they  form 
judgements  about  matters  as  to  which  they  know 
nothing  at  the  most  incompetent  period  of  hfe,  either 
under  the  guidance  of  some  friend  or  under  the  in- 
fluence  of  a  single  harangue  from  the  first  lecturer 
that  they  attended,  and  chng  as  to  a  rock  to  wliatever 

9  theory  they  are  carried  to  by  stress  of  weather.  For 
as  to  their  assertion  that  the  teacher  whom  they  judge 
to  have  been  a  wise  man  commands  their  absolute 
trust,  I  would  agree  to  this  if  to  make  that  judgement 
could  actually  have  lain  within  the  power  of  un- 
learned  no\ices  (for  to  decide  who  is  a  wise  man 
seems  to  be  a  task  that  specially  requires  a  wise  man 
to  undertake  it)  ;  but  granting  that  it  lay  within 
their  power,  it  was  only  possible  for  them  after  hear- 

475 


CICERO 

liquorum  sententiis,  iudicaverunt  autem  re  seme] 
audita  atque^  ad  unius  se  auctoritatem  contulerunt. 
Sed  nescio  quo  modo  plerique  errare  malunt  eamque 
sententiam  quam  adamaverunt  pugnacissime  defen- 
dere  quam  sine  pertinacia  quid  constantissime  dicatur 
exquirere. 

Quibus  de  rebus  et  alias  saepe  nobis  multa  quae- 
sita  et  disputata  sunt  et  quondam  in  Hortensii  villa 
quae  est  ad  Baulos,  cum  eo  Catulus  et  Lucullus 
nosque  ipsi  postridie  venissemus  quam  apud  Catulum 
fuissemus.  Quo  quidem  etiam  maturius  venimus 
quod  erat  constitutum,  si  ventus  esset,  Lucullo  in 
Neapolitanum,  mihi  in  Pompeianum  navigare.  Cum 
igitur  pauca  in  xysto  locuti  essemus,  tum  eodem  in 
spatio  consedimus. 
10  IV.  Hic  Catulus,  "  Etsi  heri,"  inquit,  "  id  quod 
quaerebatur  paene  explicatum  est,  ut  tota  fere 
quaestio  tractata  videatur,  tamen  exspecto  ea  quae 
te  polhcitus  es,  Luculle,  ab  Antiocho  audita  dicturum. " 
"  Equidem,"  inquit  Hortensius,  "  feci  plus  quam 
vellem,  totam  enim  rem  Lucullo  integram  servatam 
oportuit.  Et  tamen  fortasse  servata  est ;  a  me  enim 
ea  quae  in  promptu  erant  dicta  sunt,  a  Lucullo  autem 
reconditiora  desidero."  Tum  ille,"  Non  sane,"  inquit, 
**  Hortensi,  conturbat  me  exspectatio  tua,  etsi  nihil 

^  atque  inseruit  Lamhinus. 

"  i.e.^  the  colonnade  or  xystus  in  which  they  had  been 
strolHng. 

476 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Luclillus).  iii.— iv. 

ing  all  the  facts  and  ascertaining  the  views  of  nll 
the  other  schools  as  well,  whereas  they  gave  their 
verdict  after  a  single  hearing  of  the  case,  and  enrolled 
themselves  under  the  authority  of  a  single  master. 
But  somehow  or  other  most  men  prefer  to  go  wrong, 
and  to  defend  tooth  and  nail  the  system  for  which 
they  have  come  to  feel  an  affection,  rather  than  to 
lay  aside  obstinacy  and  seek  for  the  doctrine  that  is 
most  consistent. 

Beside  many  other  occasions  on  which  we  have  Drarmti» 
engaged  in   long  mvestigations   and   discussions   oi 
these  subjects,  there  was  one  at  Hortensius's  country- 
house  at  Bauh,  Catulus,  Lucullus  and  we  ourselves 
having  come  there  on  the  day  after  we  had  been  at 
Catulus's.     We  had  in  fact  arrived  there  rath.er  early 
because  Lucullus  had  the  intention  of  saiUng  to  his 
place  at  Naples  and  I  to  mine  at  Pompei,  if  there  was 
a  ^^ind.     So  after  a  Uttle  talk  in  the  colonnade,  we 
then  sat  down  on  a  seat  in  the  same  w  alk." 
10      IV.  Here  Catulus  said,  "  It  is  true  that  our  inquiry  lucuHus, 
of  yesterday  was  almost  fully  cleared  up,  so  that  J^^J  ^^^^^'^® 
nearly  the  whole  of  the  subject  now  appears  to  have  Antiocbus, 
been  handled  ;   but  nevertheless  I  am  waiting  with  poSk^"^ 
interest  for  you,  Lucullus,  to  fulfil  your  promise  of 'T;gainst 
teUing  us  the  doctrines  that  you  heard  from  Anti-  (§§To-62). 
ochus."     "  For  my  part,"  said  Hortensius,  "  I  coukl 
wish  that  I  had  not  gone  so  far,  for  the  whole  subject 
ought   to   have   been   reserved   in   its   entirety   for 
LucuUus.     And  yet  perhaps  it  has  been  reserved, 
for  it  was  the  more  obvious  points  that  were  ex- 
pounded  by  me,  whcreas  I  look  to  LucuUus  to  give 
us  the  more  abstruse  doctrines."    "  Your  expectancy, 
Hortensius,"  rejoined  LucuUus,  "  does  not,  it  is  true, 
upset  me,  although  there  is  nothing  that  so  much 
R  477 


CICERO 

est  iis  qui  placere  volunt  tam  adversarium.  sed  quia 
non  laboro  quam  valde  ea  quae  dico  probaturus  sim, 
eo  minus  conturbor ;  dicam  enim  nec  mea  nec  ea 
in  quibus,  si  non  fuerint,  non  vinci  me  malim  quam 
\incere.  Sed  mehercule,  ut  quidem  nunc  se  causa 
habet,  etsi  hesterno  sermone  labefactata  est,  mihi 
tamen  videtur  esse  verissima.  Agam  igitur  sicut 
Antiochus  agebat  (nota  enim  mihi  res  est,  nam  et 
vacuo  animo  illum  audiebam  et  magno  studio,  eadem 
de  re  etiam  saepius),  ut  etiam  maiorem  exspecta- 
tionem  raei  faciam  quam  modo  fecit  Hortensius." 
11  Cum  ita  esset  exorsus,  ad  audiendum  animos  erexi- 
mus  ;  at  ille  "  Cum  Alexandriae  pro  quaestore  "  in- 
quit  "  essem,  fuit  Antiochus  mecum,  et  erat  iam  antea 
Alexandriae  famiharis  Antiochi  Heraclitus  Tyrius, 
qui  et  Clitomachum  multos  annos  et  Philonem 
audierat,  homo  sane  in  ista  philosophia,  quae  nunc 
prope  dimissa  revocatur,  probatus  et  nobilis  ;  cum 
quo  Antiochum  saepe  disputantem  audiebam,  sed 
utrumque  leniter.  Et  quidem  isti  hbri  duo  Philonis, 
de  quibus  heri  dictum  a  Catulo  est,  tum  erant  adlati 
Alexandriam  tumque  primum  in  Antiochi  manus 
venerant  :  et  homo  natura  lenissimus  (nihil  enim 
poterat  fieri  illo  mitius)  stomachari  tamen  coepit. 
Mirabar,  nec  enim  umquam  ante  videram  ;    at  ille 

"  Lucullus  was  sent  by  Sulla  to  Alexandria,  87-86  b.c, 
to  try  to  raise  a  fleet. 
*  i.e.t  by  Cicero. 

478 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  iv. 

handicaps  people  desirous  of  winning  approval,  but 
I  am  less  upset  bccause  I  do  not  mind  how  far  I  am 
successful  in  gaining  assent  for  the  views  that  I  ex- 
pound  ;  for  the  doctrines  that  I  am  going  to  state  are 
not  my  own,  nor  are  they  ones  about  which,  if  they 
are  unsound,  I  should  not  wish  rather  to  be  refuted 
than  to  carry  the  day.  But  I  protest  that  even 
though  my  case  was  shaken  by  yesterday's  discus- 
sion,  it  nevertheless  appears  to  me  to  be  profoundly 
true — at  least  as  it  stands  at  present.  I  will  there- 
fore  adopt  what  used  to  be  the  procedure  of  Antiochus 
(for  I  am  famihar  with  the  subject,  since  I  used  to 
hear  him  with  undistracted  attention  and  with  great 
interest,  even  more  than  once  on  the  same  topic), 
so  as  to  cause  even  more  to  be  expected  of  me  than 
11  Hortensius  did  just  now."  On  his  beginning  in  this 
strain  we  aroused  our  attention  to  hsten  to  him  ; 
whereupon  he  proceeded  :  "  When  I  was  deputy- 
quaestor  at  Alexandria,'*  Antiochus  was  in  my  com- 
pany,  and  Antiochus's  friend,  the  Tyrian  Herachtus, 
was  at  Alexandria  already  ;  he  had  been  for  many 
years  a  pupil  of  both  Chtomachus  and  Philo,  and  was 
undoubtedly  a  person  of  standing  and  distinction  in 
the  school  of  philosophy  in  question,  which  after 
having  been  almost  abandoned  is  now  being  revived  ^ ; 
I  often  used  to  hear  Antiochus  arguing  with  Hera- 
chtus,  both  however  in  a  gentle  manner.  And  in- 
deed  those  two  volumes  of  Philo  mentioned  yester- 
day  by  Catulus  had  then  reached  Alexandria  and 
had  then  for  the  first  time  come  into  Antiochus's 
hands  ;  whereupon  though  by  nature  one  of  the 
gentlest  of  people  (in  fact  nothing  could  have  been 
kinder  than  he  was)  he  nevertheless  began  to  lose 
his  temper.     This  surprised  me,  as  I  had  never  seen 

479 


CICERO 

Heracliti  memoriam  implorans  quaerere  ex  eo  vide- 
renturne  illa  Philonis  aut  ea  num  vel  e  Philone  vel 
ex  ullo  Academico  audivisset  aliquando.  Negabat ; 
Philonis  tamen  scriptum  agnoscebat,  nec  id  quidem 
dubitari  poterat,  nam  aderant  mei  famihares,  docti 
homines,  P.  et  C.  SeUi  et  Tetrilius  Rogus  qui  se  illa 
audiiisse  Romae  de  Philone  et  ab  eo  ipso  illos  duos 
12  hbros  dicerent  descripsisse.  Tum  et  illa  dixit  An- 
tiochus  quae  heri  Catulus  commemoravit  a  patre  suo 
dicta  Philoni^  et  aha  plura,  nec  se  tenuit  quin  contra 
suum  doctorem  hbrum  etiam  ederet  qui  Sosus  in- 
scribitur.  Tum  igitur  cum  et  Herachtum  studiose 
audirem  contra  Antiochum  disserentem  et  item 
Antiochum  contra  Academicos,  dedi  Antiocho  operam 
dihgentius,  ut  causam  ex  eo  totam  cognoscerem. 
Itaque  complures  dies  adhibito  Herachto  doctis- 
que  compluribus  et  in  iis  Antiochi  fratre  Aristo  et 
praeterea  Aristone  et  Dione,  quibus  ille  secundum 
fratrem  plurimum  tribuebat,  multum  temporis  in 
ista  una  disputatione  consumpsimus.  Sed  ea  pars 
quae  contra  Philonem  erat  praetermittenda  est, 
minus  enim  acer  est  adversarius  is  qui  ista  quae  sunt 
heri  defensa  negat  Academicos  omnino  dicere  ;   etsi 

1  [Philoni]  ?  Reid. 

•  i.e.,  the  New  Academy,  as  §  12  fin. 

•  These  persons  are  otherwise  unknown. 

'  i.e.t  at  the  beginning  of  the  lost  Book  I.  of  the  first 
edition  of  Academica  ;  in  the  second  edition  the  topic  was 
traiisferred  to  Cicero  and  occupied  the  lost  Book  II. 

<*  Sosus,  hke  Antiochus  a  native  of  Ascalon,  seems  to  have 
gone  over  from  the  Academy  to  Stoicism. 

•  t.e.,  when  a  copy  is  made,  that  is  the  name  written  on  it. 
'  See  i.  12  n. 

»  i.e.y  by  Catulus,  in  the  lost  Book  I.  of  the  first  edition, 

480 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  iv. 

him  do  so  before  ;  but  he  kept  appealing  to  Hera- 
ciitus's  recollection  and  aslving  him  whether  he 
rcally  thought  that  those  doctrines  were  Philo's,  or 
whether  he  had  ever  heard  them  either  from  Philo 
or  from  any  member  of  the  Academy."  Herachtus 
always  answered  No  ;  but  still  he  recognized  it  as  a 
work  of  Philo's,  and  indeed  this  could  not  be  doubted, 
for  my  learned  friends  Publius  and  Gaius  Sehus  and 
Tetrilius  Rogus  ^  were  there  to  say  that  they  had 
heard  these  doctrines  from  Philo  at  Rome  and  had 
copied  down  the  two  books  in  question  from  Philo's 
12  own  manuscript.  Then  Antiochus  put  forward  the 
views  that  yesterday  Catulus  told  us  *=  had  been  put 
forward  in  regard  to  Philo  by  his  father,  and  also  a 
number  of  others,  and  did  not  restrain  himself  even 
from  publishing  a  book  against  his  o^vn  teacher,^ 
the  book  to  which  is  given^  the  title  of  Sosus. 
On  this  occasion  therefore  when  I  heard  both  Hera- 
chtus  earnestly  arguing  against  Antiochus  and  also 
Antiochus  against  the  Academics,  I  gave  my  atten- 
tion  more  closely  to  Antiochus,  in  order  to  learn 
from  him  his  whole  case.  Accordingly  when  we  had 
for  quite  a  number  of  days  had  Heraclitus  \Wth  us 
and  quite  a  number  of  other  learned  men,  among 
them  Antiochus's  brother  Aristus,^  and  also  Aristo 
and  Dio,  to  whom  he  used  to  assign  the  greatest 
authority  next  to  his  brother,  we  spent  a  great  deal 
of  time  in  this  single  discussion.  But  we  must  pass 
over  the  part  of  it  that  was  directed  against  Philo, 
for  he  is  a  less  keen  opponent  who  declares  that  those 
doctrines  maintained  yesterday  ^  are  not  the  doctrines 
of  the  Academy  at  all  ;   for  though   what  he  says  is 

which  bore  his  name;  the  subject  was  given  to  Cicero  in  the 
lost  Book  n.  of  the  second  edition  (see  p.  406). 

■181 


CICERO 

enim   mentitur,  tamen  est   adversarius  lenior.     Ad 
Arcesilan  Carneademque  veniamus." 

13  V.  Quae  cum  dixisset,  sic  rursus  exorsus  est  :  "  Pri- 
mum  mihi  videmini " — me  autem  [nomine]^  appellabat 
— "  cum  veteres  physicos  nominatis,  facere  idem  quod 
seditiosi  cives  solent  cum  aliquos  ex  antiquis  claros 
viros  proferunt  quos  dicant  fuisse  populares  ut  eorum 
ipsi  similes  esse  videantur.  Repetunt  enim  a^  P. 
Valerio  qui  exactis  regibus  primo  anno  consul  fuit, 
coDomemorant  reliquos  qui  leges  populares  de  pro- 
vocationibus  tulerint  cum  consules  essent ;  tum  ad  hos 
notiores,  C.  Flaminium  qui  legem  agrariam  aliquot 
annis  ante  secundum  Punicum  bellum  tribunus  plebis 
tulerit  invito  senatu  et  postea  bis  consul  factus  sit, 
L.  Cassium,  Q.  Pompeiimi ;  illi  quidem  etiam  P. 
Africanima  referre  in  eundem  numerum  solent.  Duos 
vero  sapientissimos  et  clarissimos  fratres  P.  Crassum 
et  P.  Scaevolam  aiunt  Ti.  Graccho  auctores  legum 
fuisse,  alterum  quidem  (ut  videmus)  palam,  alterum 
(ut  suspicantur)  obscurius.  Addunt  etiam  C.  Marium, 
et  de  hoc  quidem  nihil  mentiuntur.  Horum  nomini- 
bus  tot  virorum  atque  tantorum  expositis  eorum  se 

14  institutum  sequi  dicunt.  SimiUter  vos,  cum  pertur- 
bare  ut  illi  rem  pubhcam  sic  vos  philosophiam  bene 
iam  constitutam  veUtis,  Empedoclen,  Anaxagoran, 
Democritum,  Parmeniden,  Xenophanem,  Platonem 


^  [nomine]  ed. 
"  enim  a  Reid  :  iam  aut  iam  a  codd. 


482 


ACADKMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  iv.— v. 

not  true,  he  is  a  mildcr  adversary.     Let  us  come  to 
Arcesilas  and  Carneades." 

13  V.  \Vhen   he   had  said  this  he   started  again   as  (i)  xhe  New 
follows  :    "  In  the  first  place  I  feel  that  you  ^entle-  Academy 

»>      .  11  n  1  .  perverts 

men    — it  was  to  me  that  he  was  actually  speakmg,  historyithe 

— "  when    you   cite   the   names   of  the   old  natural  ^vTre^"*^ 

philosophers,  are  doing  just  what  citizens  raising  a  dogmatic, 

sedition  usually  do,  when  they  quote  some  famous 

personages  of  antiquity  as  having  been  of  the  people's 

party,  so  as  to  makc  themselves  appear  to  rescmble 

them.     For  they  go  back  to  Publius  Valerius  who 

was  consul  in  the  first  year  after  the  expulsion  of  509B.a 

the  kings,  and  they  quote  all  the  other  persons  who 

when  consuls  carried  popular  legislation  about  pro- 

cesses  of  appeal ;    then  they  come  to  the  better 

known  cases  of  Gaius  Flaminius,  who  when  tribune 

of  the  plebs  some  years  before  the  second  Punic  War  232  b.o. 

carried  an  agrarian  law  against  the  will  of  the  senate 

and  afterwards  t^Wce  became  consul,  and  of  Lucius 

Cassius  and  Quintus  Pompeius  ;  indeed  these  people 

have  a  way  of  including  even  PubHus  Africanus  in 

the  same  Hst.     But  they  say  that  the  two  very  wise 

and  distinguished  brothers  Pubhus  Crassus  and  Pub- 

hus  Scaevola  were  supporters  of  the  laws  of  Tiberius 

Gracchus,  the  former  (as  we  read)  openly,  the  latter  i33  ao. 

(as   they   suspect)   more   covertly.     They   also   add 

Gaius  Marius,  and  about  him  at  all  events  they  say 

nothing  that  is  untrue.     After  parading  all  this  hst 

of  names  of  men  of  such  distinction  they  declare  that 

they  themselves  are  following  the  principle  set  up 

14  by  them.  Similarly  your  school,  whenever  you  want 
to  upset  an  already  well-estabhshed  system  of  philo- 
sophy  just  as  they  did  a  pohtical  system,  quote 
Empedocles,  Anaxagoras,  DemocrituSj  Parmenides, 

483 


CICERO 

etiam  et  Socratem  profertis.  Sed  neque  Saturninus, 
ut  nostrum  inimicum  potissimum  nominem,  simile 
quidquam  habuit  veterum  illorum,  nec  Arcesilae 
calumnia  conferenda  est  cum  Democriti  verecundia. 
Et  tamen  isti  physici  raro  admodum,  cum  haerent 
aliquo  loco,  exclamant  quasi  mente  incitati — Empe- 
docles  quidem  ut  interdum  mihi  furere  videatur — 
abstrusa  esse  omnia,  nihil  nos  sentire,  nihil  cernere, 
nihii  omnino  quale  sit  posse  reperire  ;  maiorem  autem 
partem  mihi  quidem  omnes  isti  videntur  nimis  etiam 
quaedam  adfirmare,  plusque  profiteri  se  scire  quam 
15  sciant.  Quodsi  illi  tum  in  novis  rebus  quasi  modo 
nascentes  haesitaverunt,  nihilne  tot  saecuHs,  summis 
ingeniis,  maximis  studiis  explicatum  putamus  ? 
nonne  cum  iam  philosophorum  disciplinae  gravis- 
simae  constitissent,  tum  exortus  est,  ut  in  optima 
re  pubhca  Ti.  Gracchus  qui  otium  perturbaret,  sic 
Arcesilas  qui  constitutam  philosophiam  everteret, 
et  in  eorum  auctoritate  dehtesceret  qui  negavissent 
quidquam  sciri  aut  percipi  posse  ?  Quorum  e  numero 
tollendus  est  et  Plato  et  Socrates — alter  quia  re- 
hquit  perfectissimam  discipHnam,  Peripateticos  et 
Academicos,  nominibus  differentes,  re  congruentes, 
a  quibus  Stoici  ipsi  verbis  magis  quam  sententiis  dis- 


"  i.e.,  to  put  Arcesilas  in  a  Hst  of  philosophers  that  includes 
Democritus  is  Hke  classing  a  modern  demagogue  with  the 
democratic  statesmen  of  history.  Saturninus,  the  colleague 
of  Marius,  finally  went  beyond  him,  and  was  killed  by  the 
mob. 

484 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  v. 

Xenophanes,  and  even  Plato  and  Socrates.  Biit 
neither  had  Saturninus — to  cite  in  particular  the 
name  of  the  enemy  of  my  family — any  feature  re- 
sembhn<T  those  men  of  old,  nor  can  the  chicanery  of 
Arcesilas  be  compared  with  the  modesty  of  Demo- 
critus."  And  nevertheless  your  natural  philosophers 
do  rather  rarely,  when  brought  to  a  standstill  at  some 
topic,  cry  out  in  an  excited  sort  of  manner — Empe- 
docles  indeed  in  a  way  that  sometimes  makes  me 
think  him  raving — saying  that  all  things  are  hidden 
and  that  we  perceive  nothing,  discern  nothing,  are 
utterly  unable  to  discover  the  real  nature  of  any- 
thing  ;  although  for  the  most  part  all  your  school 
seem  to  me  at  all  events  to  be  only  too  confident  in 
some  of  their  assertions  and  to  profess  to  know  more 
15  than  they  really  do.  But  if  those  old  thinkers  found 
themselves  floundering  hke  babies  just  born  in  a 
new  world,  do  we  imagine  that  all  these  generations 
and  these  consummate  intellects  and  elaborate  in- 
vestigations  have  not  succeeded  in  making  anything 
clearer  ?  Is  it  not  the  case  that,  just  as  in  the 
noblest  of  states  Tiberius  Gracchus  arose  to  disturb 
the  atmosphere  of  peace,  so  when  the  most  authori- 
tative  schools  of  philosophy  had  now  come  to  a  stand- 
still,  then  there  arose  Arcesilas  to  overthrow  the 
estabhshed  philosophy,  and  to  lurk  behind  the 
authority  of  those  whom  he  asserted  to  have  denied 
the  possibihty  of  all  knowledge  and  perception  ? 
From  the  hst  of  these  we  must  remove  both  Plato 
and  Socrates — the  former  because  he  left  behind 
him  a  most  consummate  system  of  thought,  the 
Peripatetic  School  and  the  Academy,  which  have 
different  names  but  agree  in  substance,  and  from 
which  the  Stoics  themselves  disagreed  more  in  terms 

485 


CICERO 

senserunt ;  Socrates  autem  de  se  ipse  detrahens  in 
disputatione  plus  tribuebat  iis  quos  volebat  refellere  ; 
ita  cum  aliud  diceret  atque  sentiret,  libenter  uti 
solitus  est  ea  dissimulatione  quam  Graeci  eipwvetav 
vocant ;  quam  ait  etiam  in  Africano  fuisse  Fannius, 
idque  propterea  \-itiosum  in  illo  non  putandum  quod 
idem  fuerit  in  Socrate. 
16  VI.  "  Sed  fuerint  illa  vetera.^  si  voltis,  incognita  : 
nihilne  est  igitur  actum  quod  investigata  sunt  postea- 
quam  Arcesilas,  Zenoni  (ut  putatur)  obtrectans  nihil 
no\d  reperienti  sed  emendanti  superiores  immuta- 
tione  verborum,  dum  huius  definitiones  labefactare 
volt  conatus  est  clarissimis  rebus  tenebras  obducere  ? 
Cuius  primo  non  admodum  probata  ratio,  quamquam 
floruit  cum  acumine  ingenii  tum  admirabiU  quodam 
lepore  dicendi,  proxime  a  Lacyde  solo  retenta  est, 
post  autem  confecta  a  Carneade,  qui  est  quartus 
ab  Arcesila,  audivit  enim  Hegesinum  qui  Euandrum 
audierat  Lacydi  discipulum,  cum  Arcesilae  Lacydes 
fuisset.  Sed  ipse  Carneades  diu  tenuit,  nam  nona- 
ginta  vixit  annos,  et  qui  illum  audierant  admodum 
floruerunt,  e  quibus  industriae  plurimum  in  Chto- 
macho  fuit  (declarat  multitudo  hbrorum),  ingenii 
non  minus  in  Hagnone,^  in  Charmada  eloquentiae, 

1  veteribus  Bentley. 

*  in  Kaprnone  Christ :    in  hac  nonne  {et  alia)  codd.i    in 
Aeschine  Davies. 

•  Little  or  nothing  is  known  of  this  philosopher  or  of  the 
others  mentioned  in  this  section. 

486 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  v.— vi. 

than  in  opinions.  As  for  Socrates,  he  used  to  de- 
preciate  himself  in  discussion  and  to  assign  greater 
weight  to  those  whom  he  wished  to  refute  ;  thus, 
as  he  said  something  other  than  what  he  thought,  he 
was  fond  of  regularly  employing  the  practice  of  dis- 
sembhng  that  the  Greeks  call  irony,  which  Fannius 
says  was  also  a  feature  of  Africanus,  and  one  not  to 
be  deemed  a  fault  in  him,  for  the  reason  that  Socrates 
had  the  same  habit. 
16  VI.  "  But  let  us  grant  if  you  wish  that  those  and  phiio- 
ancient  doctrines  represented  no  real  knowledge  ;  p°rogress?d 
has  nothing  then  been  achieved  by  their  having 
been  under  examination  ever  since  the  time  when 
Arcesilas,  criticizing  Zeno  (so  it  is  supposed)  as 
making  no  new  discoveries  but  only  correcting 
his  predecessors  by  verbal  alterations,  in  his  desire 
to  undermine  Zeno's  definitions  attempted  to  cover 
with  darkness  matters  that  were  exceedingly  clear  ? 
His  system  was  at  first  not  very  much  accepted, 
although  he  was  distinguished  both  by  acuteness 
of  intellect  and  by  a  certain  admirable  charm  of 
style,  and  at  the  first  stage  it  was  preserved  by 
Lacydes  only,  but  afterwards  it  was  completed  by 
Carneades,  who  is  the  fourth  in  Hne  from  Arcesilas, 
having  attended  the  courses  of  Hegesinus  "  who  had 
attended  Evander,  the  pupil  of  Lacydes  as  Lacydes 
had  been  the  pupil  of  Arcesilas.  But  Carneades 
himself  held  the  school  for  a  long  time,  for  he  Uved 
to  be  ninety,  and  those  who  had  been  his  pupils  were 
of  considerable  eminence,  CHtomachus  being  the  one 
among  them  most  distinguished  for  industry  (as  is 
proved  by  the  large  number  of  his  books),  though 
there  was  an  equal  amount  of  talent  in  Hagnon,  of 
eloquence  in  Charmades,  and  of  charm  in  Melanthius 

487 


CICERO 

in  Melanthio  Rhodio  suavitatis.     Bene  autem  nosse 

17  Carneaden  Stratoniceus  Metrodorus  putabatur.  lam 
Clitomacho  Philo  vester  operam  multos  annos  dedit  ; 
Philone  autem  vivo  patrocinium  Academiae  non  de- 
fuit.  Sed  quod  nos  facere  nunc  ingredimur  ut  contra 
Academicos  disseramus,  id  quidam  e  philosophis  et  ii 
quidem  non  mediocres  faciundum  omnino  non  puta- 
bant,  nec  vero  esse  ullam  rationem  disputare  cum  iis 
qui  nihil  probarent,  Antipatrumque  Stoicum  qui 
multus  in  eo  fuisset  reprehendebant ;  nec  definiri 
aiebant  necesse  esse  quid  esset  cognitio  aut  perceptio 
aut  (si  verbum  e  verbo  volumus)  comprehensio,  quara 
KaTdXrjxpLv  illi  vocant,  eosque  qui  persuadere  vellent 
esse  aUquid  quod  comprehendi  et  percipi  posset 
inscienter  facere  dicebant,  propterea  quod  nihil  esset 
clarius  kvapy^ia.  (ut  Graeci,  perspicuitatem  aut  evi- 
dentiam  nos,  si  placet,  nominemus,  fabricemurque  si 
opus  erit  verba,  ne  hic  sibi  " — me  appellabat  iocans— 
"  hoc  hcere  putet  soh)  :  sed  tamen  orationem  nuUam 
putabant  inlustriorem  ipsa  evidentia  reperiri  posse, 
nec  ea  quae  tam  clara  essent  definienda  censebant. 
Ahi  autem  negabant  se  pro  hac  evidentia  quidquam 
priores  fuisse  dicturos,  sed  ad  ea  quae  contra  dice- 
rentur  dici   oportere   putabant,   ne   qui  fallerentur. 

18  Plerique  tamen  et  delinitiones  ipsarum  etiam  eviden- 

»  See  i.  41  n. 

*  A  general  term  denoting  things  that  are  self-evident  and 
do  not  require  proof,  used  as  a  technical  term  by  Zeno  to 
denote  the  characteristic  of  KaTaXrjTTTiKr]  <pavTaaia. 
488 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  vi. 

of  Rhodes.  But  the  Metrodorus  who  was  a  pupil  of 
Stratonicus  was  believed  to  have  been  well  acquainted 

17  with   Carneades.     Again   Philo   of  your   school   for  Piiiio'8 
many  years  gave  his  attention  to  Chtomachus  ;   and  zeno  went 
while  Philo  hved  the  Academy  did  not  lack  advocacy.  ^"^^  ^"* 
But  the  undertaking  upon  which  we  are  now  entering, 

the  refutation  of  the  Academics,  was  entirely  ruled 
out  by  some  of  the  philosophers,  and  those  indeed 
men  of  no  inconsiderable  standing,  and  they  held 
that  there  was  really  no  sense  in  arguing  -svith  thinkers 
who  sanctioned  nothing  as  proved,  and  they  criticized 
the  Stoic  Antipater  for  spending  much  time  in  this  ; 
and  they  also  asserted  that  there  was  no  need  to 
define  the  essential  nature  of  knowledge  or  percep- 
tion  or  (if  we  wish  to  give  a  hteral  translation) 
'  mental  grasp,'  the  Stoic  term  catalepsis,"'  and  main- 
tained  that  those  who  tried  to  prove  that  there  is 
something  that  can  be  grasped  and  perceived  were 
acting  unscientifically,  because  there  was  nothing 
clearer  than  enargeia  ^  (as  the  Greeks  call  it :  let  us 
term  it  perspicuousness  or  evldentness,  if  you  will, 
and  let  us  manufacture  terms  if  necessary,  so  as  not 
to  let  our  friend  here  " — this  was  a  jocular  shot  at  me 
— "  think  that  he  has  a  monopoly  of  this  hcence)  : 
well,  they  thought  that  no  argument  could  be  dis- 
covered  that  was  clearer  than  evidentness  itself,  and 
they  deemed  that  truths  so  manifest  did  not  need 
defining.  But  others  said  that  they  would  not  have 
opened  proceedings  "with  any  speech  in  defence  of 
this  evidentness,  but  held  that  the  proper  course  was 
for  argument  to  be  directed  to  answering  the  case 
for  the  prosecution,  so  that  they  might  not  be  some- 

18  how  taken  in.     Still  a  good  many  of  them  do  not 
object  to  definitions  even  of  evident  things  them- 

489 


CICERO 

tium  rerum  non  improbant  et  rem  idoneam  de  qua 
quaeratur  et  homines  dignos  quibuscum  disseratur 
putant.  Philo  autem  dum  nova  quaedam  commovet 
quod  ea  sustinere  vix  poterat  quae  contra  Academi- 
corimi  pertinaciam  dicebantur,  et  aperte  mentitur, 
ut  est  reprehensus  a  patre  Catulo,  et,  ut  docuit  An- 
tiochus,  in  id  ipsum  se  induit  quod  timebat.  Cum 
enim  ita  negaret  quidquam  esse  quod  comprehendi 
posset  (id  enim  volumus  esse  dKaTa.X-i]7rTov  ^),  si  illud 
esset,  sicut  Zeno  definiret,  tale  visum  (iam  enim  hoc 
pro  (fiavToxrLa  verbum  satis  hesterno  sermone  trivimus), 
visum  igitur  impressum  effictumque  ex  eo  unde  esset 
quale  esse  non  posset  ex  eo  unde  non  esset  (id  nos  a 
Zenone  definitum  rectissime  dicimus,  qui  enim  potest 
quidquam  comprehendi  ut  plane  confidas  perceptum 
id  cognitumque  esse,  quod  est  tale  quale  vel  falsum 
esse  possit  ?) — hoc  cum  infirmat  tollitque  Philo, 
iudicium  tollit  incogniti  et  cogniti ;  ex  quo  efficitur 
nihil  posse  comprehendi — ita  imprudens  eo  quo 
minime  volt  revolvitur.  Quare  omnis  oratio  contra 
Academiam  ita^  suscipitur  a  nobis  ut  retineamus  eam 

*  KaraXrjTrrou  edd.  nonnulU. 
2  ita  inseruit  ed. 

490 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  vi. 

selves,  and  they  think  that  any  fact  is  a  suitable 
matter  for  investigation  and  that  human  beings 
deserve  to  have  their  views  discussed.  But  Philo, 
in  raising  certain  revohitionary  doctrines  because  he 
was  scarcely  able  to  withstand  the  usual  arguments 
against  the  obstinacy  of  the  Academics,  manifestly 
propounds  what  is  not  true,  as  he  was  blamed  for 
doing  by  the  elder  Catulus,  and  also,  as  Antiochus 
proved,  himself  shpped  into  the  very  position  that 
he  was  afraid  of.  For  when  he  thus  maintained 
that  there  was  nothing  that  could  be  grasped  (that 
is  the  expression  that  we  choose  in  rendering 
acatalepton "),  if  that  '  presentation  '  of  which  he 
spoke  (for  we  have  by  this  time  sufficiently  habituated 
oursehes  by  our  yesterday's  conversation  to  this 
rendering  of  pkaniasia)  was,  as  Zeno  defined  it,  a 
presentation  impressed  and  moulded  from  the  object 
from  which  it  came  in  a  form  such  as  it  could  not 
have  if  it  came  from  an  object  that  was  not  the  one 
that  it  actually  did  come  from  (we  declare  that  this 
definition  of  Zeno's  is  absolutely  correct,  for  how 
can  anything  be  grasped  in  such  a  way  as  to  make 
you  absolutely  confident  that  it  has  been  perceived 
and  kno^\Ti,  if  it  has  a  form  that  could  belong  to  it 
even  if  it  were  false  ?) — when  Philo  weakens  and 
abohshes  this,  he  abohshes  the  criterion  between  the 
unknowable  and  the  knowable  ;  which  leads  to  the 
inference  that  nothing  can  be  grasped — so  in- 
cautiously  does  he  come  round  to  the  position  that 
he  most  wants  to  avoid.  Therefore  the  whole  de- 
fence  of  the  case  against  the  Academy  is  undertaken 
by  us  on  the  hne  of  preserving  the  process  of  defini- 

"  To   be   accurately    expressed,    the    sense   requires   the 
positive  catalepton. 

491 


CICERO 

definitionem  quara  Philo  voluit  evertere  ;   quam  nisi 
obtinemus,  percipi  nihil  posse  concedimus. 

19  VII.  "  Ordiamur  igitur  a  sensibus,  quorum  ita  clara 
iudicia  et  certa  sunt  ut  si  optio  naturae  nostrae 
detur  et  ab  ea  deus  aliqui  requirat  contentane  sit 
suis  Integris  incorruptisque  sensibus  an  postulet 
melius  aliquid,  non  \ddeam  quid  quaerat  amplius. 
Nec  vero  hoc  loco  exspectandum  est  dum  de  remo 
inflexo  aut  de  collo  columbae  respondeam,  non  enim 
is  sum  qui  quidquid  videtur  tale  dicam  esse  quale 
videatur.  Epicurus  hoc  viderit,  et  alia  multa  ;  meo 
autem  iudicio  ita  est  maxima  in  sensibus  veritas,  si 
et  sani  sunt  ac  valentes  et  omnia  removentur  quae 
obstant  et  impediunt.  Itaque  et  lumen  mutari  saepe 
volumus  et  situs  earum  rerimi  quas  intuemur  et 
intervalla  aut  contrahimus  aut  diducimus  multaque 
facimus  usque  eo  dum  aspectus  ipse  fidem  faciat  sui 
iudici.  Quod  idem  fit  in  vocibus,  in  odore,  in  sapore, 
ut  nemo  sit  nostrum  qui  in  sensibus  sui  cuiusque 

20  generis  iudicium  requirat  acrius.  Adhibita  vero 
exercitatione  et  arte,  ut  oculi  pictura  teneantur, 
aures  cantibus,^  quis  est  quin  cernat  quanta  vis  sit 
in  sensibus  ?  Quam  multa  vident  pictores  in  umbris 
et  in  eminentia  quae  nos  non  videmus  !  quam  multa 
quae  nos  fugiunt  in  cantu  exaudiunt  in  eo  genere 
exercitati,  qui  primo  inflatu  tibicinis  Antiopam  esse 

^  ut  .  .  .  cantibus  secl.  Davies. 

"  i.e.^  an  oar  half  in  the  water,  as  seen  from  the  boat ; 
this  case  of  refraction  and  the  changing  colours  of  a  pigeon's 
neck  were  instances  of  apparent  deception  of  the  senses  much 
used  by  the  Sceptics  ;  c/.  §  79. 
492 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  vi. — vii. 

tion  which  Philo  wished  to  overthrow  ;  and  unless 
we  bucceed  in  upholding  it,  we  adniit  that  nothing 
can  be  perceived. 

19  VII.  "  Let    us  begin  therefore   from  the  senses,  (2)Sceptic. 
whose  verdicts  are  so  clear  and  certain  that  if  human  '-."^"^  ^^^^^ 

11.  1  .  1  to  inaction 

nature  were  given  the  choice,  and  were  interrogated  andto 
by  some  god  as  to  whether  it  was  content  with  its  ih°°sTn3?s' 
own  senses  in  a  sound  and  undamaged  state  or  de-  gi^e 
manded  something  better,  I  cannot  see  what  more  Srknow- 
it  could  ask  for.     Nor  indeed  is  it  necessary  to  dehiv  ^^^^e  and 

1  .  .  1  -1      T  1  1  r-     1  *    science. 

at  tms  pomt  while  1  answer  about  the  case  oi  the 
bent  oar  **  or  the  pigeon's  neck,  for  I  am  not  one  to 
assert  that  every  object  seen  is  really  such  as  it 
appears  to  be.  Let  Epicurus  see  to  that,  and  a 
number  of  other  matters  ;  but  in  my  judgement  the 
senses  contain  the  highest  truth,  given  that  they  are 
sound  and  healthy  and  also  that  all  obstacles  and 
hindrances  are  removed.  That  is  why  we  often 
desire  a  change  of  the  hght  and  of  the  position  of  the 
objects  that  we  are  observing,  and  diminish  or  enlarge 
their  distances  from  us,  and  take  various  measures, 
until  mere  looking  makes  us  trust  the  judgement  that 
it  forms.  The  same  is  done  in  the  case  of  sounds  and 
smell  and  taste,  so  that  among  us  there  is  nobody 
who  desiderates  keener  powers  of  judgement  in  the 

20  senses,  each  in  its  class.  But  when  we  add  practice 
and  artistic  training,  to  make  our  eyes  sensitive  to 
painting  and  our  ears  to  music,  who  is  there  who  can 
fail  to  remark  the  power  that  the  senses  possess  ? 
How  many  things  painters  see  in  shadows  and  in  tlie 
foreground  which  we  do  not  see  !  how  many  things 
in  music  that  escape  us  are  caught  by  the  hearing  of 
persons  trained  in  that  department  of  art,  wlio  when 
the  flute-player  blows  his   first  note  say  *  That  is 

4,93 


CICERO 

aiunt  aut  Andromacham,  cum  id  nos  ne  suspicemur 
quidem  !  Nihil  necesse  est  de  gustatu  et  odoratu 
loqui,  in  quibus  intellegentia,  etsi  vitiosa,  est  quae- 
dam  tamen.  Quid  de  tactu,  et  eo  quidem  quem  philo- 
sophi  interiorem  vocant,  aut  doloris  aut  voluptatis, 
in  quo  Cyrenaici  solo  putant  veri  esse  iudicium  quia 
sentiatur  ?  Potestne  igitur  quisquam  dicere  inter 
eum  qui  doleat  et  inter  eum  qui  in  voluptate  sit 
nihil  interesse,  aut  ita  qui  sentiat  non  apertissime 

21  insaniat  ?  Atqui  quaha  sunt  haec  quae  sensibus  per- 
cipi  dicimus,  taha  secuntur  ea  quae  non  sensibus 
ipsis  percipi  dicuntur  sed  quodam  modo  sensibus, 
ut  haec :  '  Illud  est  album,  hoc  dulce,  canorum  illud. 
hoc  bene  olens,  hoc  asperum.'  Animo  iam  haec  tene- 
mus  comprehensa,  non  sensibus.  '  Ille  '  deinceps 
*  equus  est,  ille  canis.'  Cetera  series  deinde  se- 
quitur,  maiora  nectens,  ut  haec,  quae  quasi  expletam 
rerum  comprehensionem  amplectuntur  :  *  Si  homo 
est,  animal  est  mortale,  rationis  particeps.'  Quo  e 
genere  nobis  notitiae  rerum  imprimuntur,  sine  quibus 
nec  intellegi  quidquam  nec  quaeri  disputarive  potest. 

22  Quodsi  essent  falsae  notitiae  (iwoLas  enim  notitias 

appellare  tu  videbare) — si  igitur  essent  hae  falsae  aut 

eius  modi  visis  impressae  quaUa  visa  a  falsis  discerni 

"  Plays  of  Pacuvius  and  Erinius  re.spectively. 
^  i.e.t  in  the  dialogue  of  the  day  before,  in  the  lost  first 
edition  of  Book  I. 

491 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  vii. 

Aniiope  '  or  '  Andromache,'  °  when  we  have  not 
even  a  suspicion  of  it !  It  is  unnecessary  to  talk 
at  all  about  the  faculties  of  taste  and  smell,  which 
possess  a  certain  discernment,  although  it  is  of  a 
defective  sort.  Why  speak  of  touch,  and  indeed  of 
the  internal  tactual  sense,  as  the  philosophers  call  it, 
perceptive  of  either  pain  or  pleasure,  the  sole  basis, 
as  the  Cyrenaics  think,  of  our  judgement  of  truth, 
caused  by  the  mere  process  of  sensation  ?  Is  it 
therefore  possible  for  anybody  to  say  that  there  is  no 
difference  between  a  person  experiencing  pain  and 
a  person  experiencing   pleasure,  or  would  not  the 

21  holder  of  this  opinion  be  a  manifest  lunatic  ?  But 
then  whatever  character  belongs  to  these  objects 
which  w^e  say  are  perceived  by  the  senses  must  belong 
to  that  follomng  set  of  objects  which  are  said  to 
be  perceived  not  by  actual  sensation  but  by  a  sort 
of  sensation,  as  for  example  :  '  Yonder  thing  is 
white,  this  thing  is  sweet,  that  one  is  melodious,  this 
fragrant,  this  rough.'  This  class  of  percepts  consists 
of  comprehensions  grasped  by  our  mind,  not  by  our 
senses.  Then  *  Yonder  object  is  a  horse,  yonder  a 
dog.'  Next  follows  the  rest  of  the  series  hnking  on 
a  chain  of  larger  percepts,  for  instance  the  following, 
which  embrace  as  it  were  a  fully  completed  grasp  of 
the  objects  :  *  If  it  is  a  human  being,  it  is  a  rational 
mortal  animal.'  From  this  class  of  percept  are  im- 
printed  upon  us  our  notions  of  things,  without  which 
all   understanding    and    all    investigation    and    dis- 

22  cussion  are  impossible.  But  if  false  notions  existed 
(I  understood  you  to  employ  ^  *  notions  '  to  render 
ennoiai) — well,  if  there  were  these  false  notions  or 
notions  imprinted  on  the  mind  by  appearances  of  a 
kind  that  could  not  be  distinguished  from  false  ones, 


CICERO 

non  possent,  quo  tandem  iis  modo  uteremur  ?  quo 
modo  autem  quid  cuique  rei  consentaneum  esset, 
quid  repugnaret,  videremus  ?  Memoriae  quidem 
certe,  quae  non  modo  philosophiam  sed  omnem  vitae 
usum  omnesque  artes  una  maxime  continet,  nihil 
omnino  loci  rehnquitur.  Quae  potest  enim  esse 
memoria  falsorum  ?  aut  quid  quisquam  meminit 
quod  non  animo  comprehendit  et  tenet  ?  ars  vero 
quae  potest  esse  nisi  quae  non  ex  una  aut  duabus  sed 
ex  multis  animi  perceptionibus  constat  ?  Quam^  si 
subtraxeris,  qui  distingues  artificem  ab  inscio  ?  non 
enim  fortuito  hunc  artificem  dicemus  esse,  illum 
negabimus,  sed  cum  alterum  percepta  et  compre- 
hensa  tenere  videmus,  alterum  non  item.  Cumque 
artium  aHud  eius  modi  genus  sit  ut  tantum  modo 
animo  rem  cernat,  ahud  ut  moliatur  ahquid  et  faciat, 
quo  modo  aut  geometres  cernere  ea  potest  quae  aut 
nulla  sunt  aut  internosci  a  falsis  non  possunt,  aut  is 
qui  fidibus  utitur  explere  numeros  et  conficere  versus  ? 
quod  idem  in  similibus  quoque  artibus  continget 
quarum  omne  opus  est  in  faciendo  atque  agendo, 
quid  enim  est  quod  arte  effici  possit,  nisi  is  qui  artem 
tractabit  multa  perceperit  ? 
23  VIII.  "  Maxime  vero  virtutum  cognitio  confirmat 
percipi  et  comprehendi  multa  posse.  In  quibus  sohs 
inesse  etiam  scientiam  dicimus  (quam  nos  non  com- 
prehensionem  modo  rerum  sed  eam  stabilem  quoque 
et  immutabilem  esse  censemus),  itemque  sapientiam, 

*  quas  Walker. 

"  Artifex  denotes  the  pursuer  of  an  ars^  an  organized  body 
of  knowledge,  a  science,  whether  theoretical  or  apphed  in 
practice.  It  includes  here  the  musician  (also  regarded  as  a 
poet),  but  the  practice  of  music  seems  to  be  envisaged  as 
496 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  vii.— viii. 

how  pray  coiild  we  act  on  them  ?  how  moreover  could 
we  see  what  is  consistent  with  any  given  fact  and 
what  inconsistent  ?  At  all  events  no  place  at  all  is 
left  for  memory,  the  one  principal  foundation  not 
only  of  philosophy  but  of  all  the  conduct  of  Hfe  and 
all  the  sciences.  For  how  can  there  possibly  be  a 
memory  of  what  is  false  ?  or  what  can  anyone  re- 
member  that  he  does  not  grasp  and  hold  in  his  mind  ? 
But  what  science  can  there  be  that  is  not  made  up  of 
not  one  nor  two  but  many  mental  percepts  ?  And  if 
you  take  away  science,  how  will  you  distinguish  be- 
tween  the  craftsman^  and  the  ignoramus  ?  for  we  shall 
not  pronounce  one  man  to  be  a  craftsman,  and  the 
other  not,  just  casually,  but  when  we  see  the  one 
retain  what  he  has  perceived  and  grasped,  and  the 
other  not.  And  as  one  class  of  sciences  is  of  such  a 
nature  as  only  to  envisage  facts  mentally,  and  another 
such  as  to  do  or  to  make  something,  how  can  the 
geometrician  envisage  things  that  are  either  non- 
existent  or  indistinguishable  from  flctitious  things,  or 
the  player  on  the  harp  round  off  his  rhythms  and 
complete  his  verses  ?  and  the  same  result  will  also 
occur  in  the  other  crafts  of  the  same  class  which  are 
solely  exercised  in  making  and  doing,  for  what  can 
be  effected  by  a  craft  unless  its  intending  practitioner 
has  accumulated  many  percepts  ? 
28      VIII.  "  The  greatest  proof  however  of  our  capacity  True 

to  perceive  and  grasp  many  things  is  afforded  by  the  is^[i^dyspens. 
study   of  Ethics.     Our  percepts   alone  we   actually  «^bie  for 
pronounce  to  form  the  basis  of  knowledge  (which  in  conduct  and 
our  view  is  not  only  a  grasp  of  facts  but  a  grasp  that  j^Q^o^le^jgQ^ 
I       is  also  permanent  and  unchangeable),  and  Uke^Wse 

based  on  knowlcdge  of  its  t.heory.     At  §  l-t3  the  craftsmen 
instanced  are  a  painter  and  two  sculptors. 

407 


CICERO 

artem  vivendi,  quae  ipsa  ex  sese  habeat  constantiam. 
Ea  autem  constantia  si  nihil  habeat  percepti  et 
cogniti,  quaero  unde  nata  sit  aut  quo  modo.  Quaero 
etiam,  ille  vir  bonus  qui  statuit  omnem  cruciatum 
perferre,  intolerabili  dolore  lacerari  potius  quam  aut 
officium  prodat  aut  fidem,  cur  has  sibi  tam  graves 
leges  imposuerit  cum  quam  ob  rem  ita  oporteret  nihil 
haberet  comprehensi,  percepti,  cogniti,  constituti. 
Nullo  igitur  modo  fieri  potest  ut  quisquam  tanti 
aestimet  aequitatem  et  fidem  ut  eius  conservandae 
causa  nullum  supphcium  recuset,  nisi  iis  rebus  ad- 

24  sensus  sit  quae  falsae  esse  non  possint.  Ipsa  vero 
sapientia  si  se  ignorabit  sapientia  sit  necne,  quo 
modo  primum  obtinebit  nomen  sapientiae  ?  deinde 
quo  modo  suscipere  aliquam  rem  aut  agere  fidenter 
audebit  cum  certi  nihil  erit  quod  sequatur  ?  cum  vero 
dubitabit  quid  sit  extremum  et  ultimum  bonorum 
ignorans  quo  omnia  referantur,  qui  poterit  esse 
sapientia  ?  Atque  etiam  illud  perspicuum  est,  con- 
stitui  necesse  esse  initium  quod  sapientia  cum  quid 
agere  incipiat  sequatur,  idque  initium  esse  naturae 
accommodatum,  Nam  ahter  adpetitio  (eam  enim 
volumus  esse  o/)pjv),  qua  ad  agendum  impellimur  et 
id  adpetimus  quod  est  visum,  moveri  non  potest ; 

25  illud  autem  quod  movet  prius  oportet  videri,  eique 
credi,  quod  fieri  non  potest  si  id  quod  visum  erit 
498 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus).  viii. 

of  wisdom,  the  science  of  livinsr,  which  is  its  own 
source  of  consistency.  But  if  this  consistency  had 
nothing  that  it  grasped  and  knew,  whence,  I  ask,  or 
how  would  it  be  engendered  ?  consider  also  the  ideal 
good  man,  who  has  resolved  to  endure  all  torments 
and  to  be  mangled  by  intolerable  pain  rather  than 
betray  either  his  duty  or  his  promise — why,  I  ask, 
has  he  saddled  himself  with  such  burdensome  rules 
as  this  when  he  had  no  grasp  or  perception  or  know- 
ledge  or  certainty  of  any  fact  that  furnished  a  reason 
why  it  was  his  duty  to  do  so  ?  It  is  therefore  ab- 
solutely  impossible  that  anybody  should  set  so  high 
a  value  upon  equity  and  good  faith  as  to  refuse  no 
torture  for  the  sake  of  preserving  it,  unless  he  has 
given  his  assent  to  things  that  cannot  possibly  be 

24  false.  As  for  wisdom  herself,  if  she  does  not  know 
whether  she  is  wisdom  or  not,  how^  in  the  first  place 
will  she  make  good  her  claim  to  the  name  of  wisdom  ? 
next,  how  will  she  venture  with  confidence  to  plan  or 
execute  any  undertaking  when  there  will  be  nothing 
certain  for  her  to  act  upon  ?  indeed,  when  she  will 
be  hesitating  in  ignorance  of  what  the  final  and 
ultimate  good  to  which  all  things  are  to  be  referred 
really  is,  how  can  she  possibly  be  wisdom  ?  This  other 
point  moreover  is  manifest :  there  must  be  a  first 
principle  established  for  M-isdom  to  follow  when  she 
embarks  on  any  action,  and  this  first  principle  must 
be  consistent  with  nature  ;  fgr  otherwise  appetition 
(our  chosen  equivalent  for  the  term  horme),  by  which 
we  are  impelled  to  action  and  seek  to  get  an  object 

25  presented  to  our  vision,  cannot  be  set  in  motion  ;  but 
the  thing  that  sets  it  in  motion  must  first  of  all  be 
seen,  and  must  be  beheved  in,  which  cannot  take 
place  if  an  object  seen  will  be  indistinguishable  from 

499 


CICERO 

discerni  non  poterit  a  falso  ;  quo  modo  autem  moveri 
animus  ad  adpetendum  potest  si  id  quod  videtur  non 
percipitur  accommodatumne  naturae  sit  an  alienum  ? 
Itemque  si  quid  officii  sui  sit  non  occurrit  animo,  nihil 
umquam  omnino  aget,  ad  nullam  rem  umquam 
impelletur,  numquam  movebitur  ;  quodsi  aliquid 
aliquando  acturus  est,  necesse  est  id  ei  verum  quod 

26  occurrit  \ideri.  Quid  quod,  si  ista  vera  sunt,  ratio 
omnis  tollitur  quasi  quaedam  lux  lumenque  vitae  ? 
tamenne  in  ista  pravitate  perstabitis  ?  Nam  quae- 
rendi  initium  ratio  attulit,  quae^  perfecit  virtutem 
cum  esset  ipsa  ratio  confirmata  quaerendo  ;  quaestio 
autem  est  adpetitio  cognitionis,  quaestionisque  finis 
inventio  ;  at  nemo  invenit  falsa,  nec  ea  quae  incerta 
permanent  inventa  esse  possunt,  sed  cum  ea  quae 
quasi  involuta  fuerunt  aperta  sunt,  tum  inventa 
dicuntur — sic  et  initium  quaerendi  et  exitus  per- 
cipiundi  et  comprendendi  tenetur.  Argumenti  con- 
clusio,  quae  est  Graece  O7ro8eif ts,  ita  definitur  :  *  ratio 
quae  ex  rebus  perceptis  ad  id  quod  non  percipie- 
batur  adducit.' 

27  IX.  "  Quodsi  omnia  visa  eius  modi  essent  qualia 
isti  dicunt,  ut  ea  vel  falsa  esse  possent  neque  ea 
posset  ulla  notio  discernere,  quo  modo  quemquam 
aut  conclusisse  aliquid  aut  invenisse  diceremus,  aut 
quae  esset  conclusi  argumenti  fides  ?  Ipsa  autem 
philosophia,  quae  rationibus  progredi  debet,  quem 

^  quod  (  =  quaerendum,  quaestio)  ?  ed. 

"  Cicero  seems  to  be  translating  some  such  phrase  as  </>Is 
Kai  (peyyo$  tov  filov. 

^  Tlie  sense  seems  to  require '  research  which  ' :  for  virtns, 
or  its  Stoic  equivalcnt  sapientia,  as  ratio  perfecta  cf.  i.  20, 
ii.  30  fin. 

"  Involuta  aperire  is  a  translation  of  iKKa^KvwTeiv^  denoting 

500 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  viii.— ix. 

a  false  one  ;  but  how  can  the  mind  be  moved  to 
appetition  if  it  does  not  perceive  whether  the  object 
seen  is  cousistent  with  nature  or  foreign  to  it  }  And 
moreover  if  it  has  not  struck  the  mind  what  its 
function  is,  it  will  never  do  anything  at  all,  never  be 
driven  towards  any  object,  never  make  a  movement  ; 
whereas  if  it  is  at  some  time  to  do  something,  what 

26  strikes  it  must  seem  to  it  to  be  true.  What  about 
the  total  abohtion  of  reason,  '  Hfe's  dayspring  and 
source  of  light,'  '^  that  must  take  place  if  your 
doctrines  are  true  ?  will  your  school  continue  stead- 
fast  in  such  perversity  all  the  same  ?  For  it  is  reason 
that  initiated  research,  reason  ^  which  has  perfected 
virtue,  since  reason  herself  is  strengthened  by  pur- 
suing  research  ;  but  research  is  the  appetition  for 
knowledge,  and  the  aim  of  research  is  discovery  ; 
yet  nobody  discovers  what  is  false,  and  things  that 
remain  continually  uncertain  cannot  be  discovered  : 
discovery  means  the  '  opening  up  of  things  pre- 
viously  veiled  ' '^ — this  is  how  the  mind  holds  both 
the  commencement  of  research  and  the  final  act 
of  perceiving  and  grasping.  Therefore  this  is  the 
definition  of  logical  proof,  in  Greek  apodeixis  :  '  a 
process  of  reasoning  that  leads  from  things  perceived 
to  something  not  previously  perceived.' 

27  IX.  "  In  fact  if  all  sense-presentations  were  of  such  and  for 

a  kind  as  your  school  say  they  are,  so  that  they  could  whiih°^  ^' 
possibly  be  false  without  any  mental  process  being  Carneades 
able  to  distinguish  them,  how  could  we  say  that  any-  unier- 
body  had  proved  or  discovered  anything,  or  what  "^'^^*^- 
trust  could  we  put  in  logical  proof  ?     Philosophy  her- 
self  must  advance  by  argument — how  will  she  find  a 

a  process  of  argument ;  the  conclusion  is  seen  to  be  contalncd 
in  the  premisses. 

501 


CICERO 

habebit  exitum  ?  Sapientiae  vero  quid  futurum  est  ? 
quae  neque  de  se  ipsa  dubitare  debet  neque  de  suis 
decretis  quae  philosophi  vocant  S6yiJ.aTa,  quorum 
nullum  sine  scelere  prodi  poterit ;  cum  enim  decretum 
proditur,  lex  veri  rectique  proditur,  quo  e  vitio  et 
amicitiarum  proditiones  et  rerum  publicarum  nasci 
solent.  Non  potest  igitur  dubitari  quin  decretum 
nullum  falsum  possit  esse  sapientis,  neque  satis  sit 
non  esse  falsum  sed  etiam  stabile,  fixum,  ratum  esse 
debeat,  quod  movere  nulla  ratio  queat  ;  talia  autem 
neque  esse  neque  videri  possunt  eorum  ratione  qui 
illa  visa  e  quibus  omnia  decreta  sunt  nata  negant 

28  quicquam  a  falsis  interesse.  Ex  hoc  illud  est  natum 
quod  postulabat  Hortensius,  ut  id  ipsum  saltem 
perceptum  a  sapiente  diceretis,  nihil  posse  percipi. 
Sed  Antipatro  hoc  idem  postulanti,  cum  diceret  ei 
qui  adfirmaret  nihil  posse  percipi  unum  tamen  illud 
dicere  percipi  posse  consentaneum  esse,  ut  aha  non 
possent,  Carneades  acutius  resistebat  ;  nam  tantum 
abesse  dicebat  ut  id  consentaneum  esset,  ut  maxime 
etiam  repugnaret :  qui  enim  negaret  quicquam  esse 
quod  perciperetur,  eum  nihil  excipere  ;  ita  necesse 
esse  ne  id  ipsum  quidem,  quod  exceptum  non  esset, 

29  comprendi  et  percipi  uUo  modo  posse.  Antiochus  ad 
istum  locum  pressius  vldebatur  accedere  :  quoniam 
enim  id  haberent  Academici  decretum  (sentitis  enim 
iam  hoc  me  6dy/xa  dicere),  nihil  posse  percipi,  non 
debere   eos   in  suo   decreto   sicut   in   ceteris   rebus 

•  i<r(pa\rj  Kal  d.fj.eTdTrTUTOv  virb  \6yov  Sextus,  A.M.  vii.  151. 
502 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  ix. 

wav  out  ?  And  what  will  happen  to  Wisdom  ?  it  is 
her  duty  not  to  doubt  herself  or  her  '  decisions,'  which 
philosophers  term  dogmaia,  any  of  which  it  will  be 
a  crime  to  abandon  ;  for  the  surrender  of  such  a 
*  dccision '  is  the  betrayal  of  the  moral  law,  and  that  sin 
is  the  common  source  of  betrayals  of  friends  and 
country.  Therefore  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  no 
'  decision  '  of  a  wise  man  can  be  false,  and  that  it  is  not 
sufficient  for  them  not  to  be  false  but  they  must  also  be 
firmly  settled  and  ratified,  immovable  by  any  argu- 
ment  '^ ;  but  such  a  character  cannot  belong  or  seem 
to  belong  to  them  on  the  theory  of  those  who  main- 
tain  that  the  sense-presentations  from  which  all 
decisions  spring  differ  in  no  way  from  false  presenta- 

>8  tions.  From  this  sprang  the  demand  put  forward 
by  Hortensius,  that  your  school  should  say  that  the 
wise  man  has  perceived  at  least  the  mere  fact  that 
nothing  can  be  perceived.  But  when  Antipater  used 
to  make  the  same  demand,  and  to  say  that  one  who 
asserted  that  nothing  could  be  perceived  might  yet 
consistently  say  that  this  single  fact  could  be  per- 
ceived,  namely  that  nothing  else  could,  Carneades 
-with  greater  acumen  used  to  oppose  him ;  he  used 
to  declare  that  this  was  so  far  from  being  consistent 
that  it  was  actually  grossly  inconsistent  :  for  the  man 
who  said  there  was  nothing  that  was  perceived  made 
no  exception,  and  so  not  even  the  impossibility  of 
perception  could  itself  be  grasped  and  perceived  in 

J9  any  way,  because  it  had  not  been  excepted.  Anti- 
ochus  used  to  seem  to  come  more  closely  to  grips 
with  this  position  ;  he  argued  that  because  the 
Academics  held  it  as  a  '  decision  '  (for  you  reahze  by 
now  that  I  use  that  term  to  translate  dogma)  that 
nothing  could  be  perceived,  they  were  bound  not  to 

503 


CICERO 

fluctvmre,  praesertim  ciim  in  eo  siimma  consisteret, 
hanc  enim  esse  regulam  totius  philosophiae,  con- 
stitutionem  veri  falsi,  cogniti  incogniti ;  quam  ratio- 
nem  quoniam  susciperent,  docereque  vellent  quae 
visa  accipi  oporteret,  quae  repudiari,  certe  hoc 
ipsum  ex  quo  omne  veri  falsique  iudicium  esset 
percipere  eos  debuisse  ;  etenim  duo  esse  hacc 
maxima  in  philosophia,  iudicium  veri  et  finem  bono- 
rum,  nec  sapientem  posse  esse  qui  aut  cognoscendi 
esse  initium  ignoret  aut  extremum  expetendi,  ut 
aut  unde  proficiscatur  aut  quo  perveniendum  sit 
nesciat ;  haec  autem  habere  dubia  nec  iis  ita  con- 
fidere  ut  moveri  non  possint^  abhorrere  a  sapientia 
plurimum.2  Hoc  igitur  modo  potius  erat  ab  his 
postulandum  ut  hoc  unum  saltem,  percipi  nihil  posse, 
perceptum  esse  dicerent.  Sed  de  inconstantia  totius 
illorum  sententiae,  si  ulla  sententia  cuiusquam  esse 
potest  nihil  adprobantis,  sit  ut'  opinor  dictum  satis. 
30  X.  "  Sequitur  disputatio  copiosa  illa  quidem  sed 
paulo  abstrusior — habet  enim  aUquantum  aphysicis, — 
ut  verear  ne  maiorem  largiar  ei  qui  contra  dicturus 
est  hbertatem  et  Hcentiam,  nam  quid  eum  facturum 
putem  de  abditis  rebus  et  obscuris  qui  lucem  eripere 
conetur  ?     Sed   disputari   poterat   subtihter   quanto 

^  possit  ?  ed. 

2  <quani/  plurimum  ?  ed. 

3  sit  ut :  est  Ernesti. 

"  i.e.,  in  Antiochus's  Sosus,  see  §  12.     C/,  §  38. 

*  For  this  reproach  against  the  Sceptics  c/.  §§  38,  61,  109. 

*  C/.  i.  19. 

504 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  ix.— x. 

waver  in  their  own  '  decision  '  as  they  did  in  everything- 
else,  particuh\rly  when  it  was  the  keystone  of  their 
system,  for  this  was  the  measuring-rod  that  apphed 
to  the  whole  of  philosophy,  the  test  of  truth  and  false- 
hood,  of  knowledge  and  ignorance  ;    and  that  since 
they  adopted  this  method,  and  desired  to  teach  what 
sense-presentations  ought  to  be  accepted  and  what 
rejected,  they  unquestionably  ought  to  have  per- 
ceived  this  decision  itself,  the  basis  of  every  criterion 
of  truth  and  falsehood  ;  for  (he  said)  the  two  greatest 
things  in  philosophy  were  the  criterion  of  truth  and 
the  end  of  goods,  and  no  man  could  be  a  sage  who 
was  ignorant  of  the  existence  of  either  a  beginning  of 
the  process  of  knowledge  or  an  end  of  appetition,  and 
who  consequently  did  not  know  from  Mhat  he  was 
starting  or  at  what  he  ought  to  arrive  ;   but  to  be  in 
doubt  as  to  these  matters  and  not  to  feel  imraovably 
sure  of  them  was  to  be  very  widely  remote  from  wisdom. 
On  these  hnes  therefore  they  ought  to  have  been 
required  rather  to  say  that  this  one  thing  at  least 
was  perceived — the  impossil^ility  of  perceiving  any- 
thing.     But  about  the  inconsistency  of  the  whole  of 
their  theory,  if  anybody  holding  no  positive  view  at 
all  can  be  said  to  have  any  theory,  enough,  as  I  think, 
may  have  been  said. 
30      X.  "  Next  comes  "  a  discussion  which  though  very  (3)The 
fully  developed  is  a  httle  more  recondite,  for  it  con-  ^^^^^^^ 
tains  a  certain  amount  of  matter  derived  from  natural  psychoiogy: 
philosophy  ;  so  that  I  am  afraid  that  I  may  be  bestow-  derived  °^' 
inff  ffreater  hberty  and  even  hcence  upon  the  speaker  from 
who  is  to  oppose  me,  lor  wnat  can  1  suppose  tnat  i.  the  basis 
one  who  is  endeavouring  to  rob  us  of  hght  ^*  will  do  of^tue. 
about  matters  that  are  hidden  in  darkness  ?  '^    Still,  it 
would  have  been  possible  to  discuss  in  minute  detail 

505 


CICERO 

quasi  artificio  natura  fabricata  esset  primum  animal 
omne,  deinde  hominem  maxime,  quae  vis  esset  in 
sensibus,  quem  ad  modum  primo  visa  nos  pellerent, 
deinde  adpetitio  ab  his  pulsa  sequeretur,  tum^  sensus 
ad  res  percipiendas  intenderemus.  Mens  enim  ipsa, 
quae  sensuum  fons  est  atque  etiam  ipsa^  sensus  est, 
naturalem  vim  habet  quam  intendit  ad  ea  quibus 
movetur.  Itaque  alia  visa  sic  arripit  ut  iis  statira 
utatur,  alia  quasi  recondit,  e  quibus  memoria  oritur, 
cetera  autem  similitudinibus  construit,  ex  quibus 
efficiuntur  notitiae  rerum,  quas  Graeci  tum  hvocas, 
tum  ~poXrj\p€Ls  vocant.  Eo  cum  accessit  ratio  argu- 
mentique  conclusio  rerumque  innumerabilium  mul- 
titudo,  tum  et  perceptio  eorum  omnium  apparet  et 
eadem  ratio  perfecta  his  gradibus  ad  sapientiam  per- 
31  venit.  Ad  rerum  igitur  scientiam  vitaeque  constan- 
tiam  aptissima  cum  sit  mens  hominis,  amplectitur 
maxime  cognitionem  et  istam  KaTdkrjxfcv,  quam  ut 
dixi  verbum  e  verbo  exprimentes  comprensionem 
dicemus,  cum  ipsam  per  se  amat  (nihil  enim  est  ei 
veritatis  luce  dulcius) ,  tum  etiam  propter  usum.  Quo- 
circa  et  sensibus  utitur  et  artes  efficit  quasi  sensus 
alteros  et  usque  eo  philosophiam  ipsam  corroborat 
ut  virtutem  efficiat,  ex  qua  re  una  vita  omnis  apta 
sit.'     Ergo  ii  qui  negant  quicquam  posse  comprendi 

^  tum  ed.  :  tum  ut  codd. 

2  ipse  Ernesti. 

'  est  Ilahn. 

■  Adpetitio  is  Cicero's  version  of  o/j/xt;,  see  §  24  n. 
506 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  x. 

theamount  of  craflsmanshipthat  natm-e  has  employed 
in  the  construction  first  of  e very  animal,  then most  of  all 
in  man, — the  power  possessed  by  the  senses,  the  way 
in  which  we  are  first  struck  by  the  sense-presenta- 
tions,  next  follows  appetition  <*  imparted  by  their  im- 
pact,  and  then  we  direct  the  senses  to  perceive  the 
objects.  For  the  mind  itself,  which  is  the  source  of 
the  sensations  and  even  is  itself  sensation,  has  a 
natural  force  which  it  directs  to  the  things  by  which 
it  is  moved.  Accordingly  some  sense-presentations 
it  seizes  on  so  as  to  make  use  of  them  at  once,  others 
it  as  it  were  stores  away,  these  being  the  source 
of  memory,  while  all  the  rest  it  unites  into  systems 
by  their  mutual  resemblances,  and  from  these  are 
formedthe  concepts  of  objects  which  the  Greeks  term 
sometimes  ennoiai  and  sometimes  prolepseis.  When 
thereto  there  has  been  added  reason  and  logical  proof 
and  an  innumerable  multitude  of  facts,  then  comes 
the  clear  perception  of  all  these  things,  and  also  this 
same  reason  having  been  by  these  stages  made  com- 
31  plete  finally  attains  to  wisdom.  Since  therefore  the 
mind  of  man  is  supremely  well  adapted  for  the  know- 
ledge  of  things  and  for  consistency  of  Hfe,  it  embraces 
information  very  readily,  and  your  caialepsis,  which 
as  I  said  we  will  express  by  a  hteral  translation  as 
*  grasp,'  is  loved  by  the  mind  both  for  itself  (for 
nothing  is  dearer  to  the  mind  than  the  hght  of  truth) 
and  also  for  the  sake  of  its  utihty.  Hence  the  mind 
employs  the  senses,  and  also  creates  the  sciences  as  a 
second  set  of  senses,  and  strengthens  the  structure  of 
philosophy  itself  to  the  point  where  it  may  produce 
virtue,  the  sole  source  of  the  ordering  of  the  whole  of 
life.  Therefore  those  who  assert  that  nothing  can  be 
grasped  deprive  us  of  these  things  that  are  the  very 

507 


CICERO 

haec  ipsa  eripiunt  vel  instrumenta  vel  omamenta 
vitae,  vel  potius  etiam  totam  \dtam  evertunt  funditus 
ipsumque  animal  orbant  animo.  ut  difficile  sit  de 
temeritate  eorum  perinde  ut  causa  postulat  dicere. 

32  "  Nec  vero  satis  constituere  possum  quod  sit  eorum 
consilium  aut  quid  velint.  Interdum  enim  cum  ad- 
liibemus  ad  eos  orationem  eius  modi.  si  ea  quae  dis- 
putentur  vera  sint,  tum  omnia  fore  incerta,  respon- 
dent :  '  Quid  ergo  istud  ad  nos  ?  num  nostra  culpa 
est  ?  naturam  accusa,  quae  in  profundo  veritatem, 
ut  ait  Democritus,  penitus  abstruserit.'  Alii  autem 
elegantius,  qui  etiam  queruntur  quod  eos  insimule- 
raus  omnia  incerta  dicere,  quantumque  intersit  inter 
incertum  et  id  quod  percipi  non  possit  docere  conan- 
tur  eaque  distinguere.  Cum  his  igitur  agamus  qui 
haec  distinguunt,  illos  qui  omnia  sic  incerta  dicunt  ut 
stellarum  numerus  par  an  impar  sit  quasi  desperatos 
aliquos  rehnquamus.  \"olunt  enim  (et  hoc  quidem 
vel  maxime  vos  animadvertebam  moveri)  probabile 
aliquid  esse  et  quasi  veri  simile,  eaque  se  uti  regula 
et  in  agenda  vita  et  in  quaerendo  ac  disserendo. 

33  XI.  "  Quae  ista  regula  est  veri  et  falsi,  si  no- 
tionem  veri  et  falsi,  propterea  quod  ea  non  possunt 
internosci,  nullam  habemus  ?  Nam  si  habemus, 
interesse  oportet  ut  inter  rectum  et  pravum  sic  inter 
verum  et  falsum  :  si  nihil  interest,  nulla  regula  est, 
nec  potest  is  cui  est  visio  veri  falsique  communis  ullum 

*  The  favourite  charge  of  the  Sceptics  against  the  dog- 
matic  schools. 

*  C/.  i.  44  n. 

*  Doubtless  a  reference  to  the  exposition  of  Catulus  at  the 
beginning  of  the  lost  Book  I.  of  the  first  edition. 

**  Quasi  marks  veri  simile  as  an  explanation  of  prohabih 
used  to  translate  indavov. 
508 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  x.— xi. 

tools  or  equipment  of  life,  or  rather  actually  over- 
throw  the  whole  of  hfe  from  its  foundations  and 
deprive  the  animate  creature  itself  of  the  mind  that 
animates  it,  so  that  it  is  difficult  to  speak  of  their 
rashness  ^  entirely  as  the  case  requires. 

}2  "  Nor  indeed  can  I  fully  decide  what  their  plan  is  Adistinc- 
or  what  they  mean.  For  sometimes  when  we  address  a  d^f^rence. 
them  in  this  sort  of  language,  '  If  your  contentions 
are  true,  then  everything  will  be  uncertain,'  they 
reply,  '  Well,  what  has  that  to  do  with  us  ?  surely  it 
is  not  our  fault  ;  blame  nature  for  having  hidden 
truth  quite  away,  in  an  abyss,  as  Democritus  says.'  ^ 
But  others  make  a  more  elaborate  answer,  and 
actually  complain  because  we  charge  them  with  say- 
ing  that  everything  is  uncertain,  and  they  try  to 
explain  the  difference  between  what  is  uncertain  and 
what  cannot  be  grasped,  and  to  distinguish  between 
them.  Let  us  therefore  deal  with  those  who  make 
this  distinction,  and  leave  on  one  side  as  a  hopeless 
sort  of  persons  the  others  who  say  that  all  things  are 
as  uncertain  as  whether  the  number  of  the  stars  is 
odd  or  even.  For  they  hold  (and  this  in  fact,  I 
noticed,"  excites  your  school  extremely)  that  some- 
thing  is  *  probable,'  or  as  it  were  ^  resembhng  the 
truth,  and  that  this  provides  them  with  a  canon  of 
judgement  both  in  the  conduct  of  hfe  and  in  philo- 
sophical  investigation  and  discussion. 

J3      XI.  "  \Vhat  is  this  canon  of  truth  and  falsehood,  ifthe  tnie 
if  we  have  no  notion  of  truth  and  falsehood,  for  the  t^nguisiiable 
reason  that  they  are  indistinguishable  ?     For  if  we  from  the 
have  a  notion  of  them,  there  must  be  a  difFerence  dence' is 
between  true  and  false,  just  as  there  is  between  right  Jestroyed. 
and  ^vrong  ;   if  there  is  none,  there  is  no  canon,  and 
the  man  who  has  a  presentation  of  the  true  and  the 
s  509 


CICERO 

habere  iudicium  aut  ullam  omnino  veritatis  notam. 
Nam  cum  dicunt  hoc  se  unum  tollere  ut  quicquam 
possit  ita^  videri  ut  non  eodem  modo  falsum  etiam 
possit^  videri,  cetera  autem  concedere,  faciunt 
pueriliter.  Quo  enim  omnia  iudicantur  sublato  re- 
liqua  se  negant  tollere  :  ut  si  quis  quem  oculis  priva- 
verit,  dicat  ea  quae  cerni  possent  se  ei  non  ademisse. 
Ut  enim  illa  oculis  modo  agnoscuntur,  sic  reliqua  visis, 
sed  propria  veri,  non  communi  veri  et  falsi  nota. 
Quam  ob  rem  sive  tu  probabilem^  visionem  sive  pro- 
babilem  et  quae  non  impediatur,  ut  Carneades  vole- 
bat,  sive  aliud  quid  proferes  quod  sequare,  ad  visum 
34  illud  de  quo  agimus  tibi  erit  revertendum.  In  eo 
autem,  si*  erit  communitas  cum  falso,  nullum  erit 
iudicium,  quia  proprium^  communi  signo  notari  non 
potest ;  sin  autem  commune  nihil  erit,  habeo  quod 
volo,  id  enim  quaero  quod  ita  mihi  videatur  verum  ut 
non  possit  item  falsum  videri.  Simih  in  errore  ver- 
santur  cum  convicio  veritatis  coacti  perspicua  a  per- 
ceptis  volunt  distinguere,  et  conantur  ostendere  esse 

^  ita  <verum>  Baiter. 

*  possit  Lamhinus  :  possit  ita  codd, 

'  Faber :  improbabilem  codd. 

*  si  <ei>  ?  Reid. 

^  proprium  Halm  :  proprium  in  codd. 

*  KOivr]  (pauraaia  rov  re  a\r}dod$  /cat  \pev5ovs,  Sextus. 

^  Perhaps  we  should  emend  '  any  true  thing,'  c/.  §  34. 
The  clause  refers  to  the  possibiHty  that  an  hallucination,  a 
visual  image  not  corresponding  to  a  real  obiect,  may  exactly 
resemble  a  visual  image  presented  by  a  real  object. 

■^  (pavracria  iridavrj  Kal  dTrepicnra(rros,  a  sensation  which  (1)  at 
first  sight,  without  further  inquiry,  seems  true,  and  also 
(2)  when  examined  in  relation  to  all  the  other  sensations 
510 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xi. 

falsethat  is  commontoboth"  cannothave  anycriterion 
or  any  mark  of  truth  at  all.  vFor  when  they  say 
that  they  only  remove  the  possibihty  of  anything  ^ 
presenting  an  appearance  of  such  a  sort  that  a  fiilse 
thing  could  not  present  the  same  appearance,  but 
that  they  allow  everything  else,  they  act  childishly. 
Having  aboHshed  the  means  by  which  all  things  are 
judged,  they  say  they  do  not  abolish  the  remaining 
sources  of  knowledge  ;  just  as  if  anybody  were  to  say 
that  when  he  has  deprived  a  man  of  his  eyes  he  has  not 
taken  away  from  that  man  the  possibleobjectsof  sight. 
For  just  as  the  objects  of  sight  are  recognized  only  by 
means  of  the  eyes,  so  everything  else  is  recognized  by 
means  of  sense-presentations ;  but  they  are  recognized 
by  a  mark  that  belongs  specially  to  w^hat  is  true,  and 
is  not  common  to  the  true  and  the  false.  Therefore  if 
youbringforward'  probablepresentation,'or'  probable 
and  unhampered  presentation,'  ^  as  Carneades  held,  or 
something  else,  as  a  guide  for  you  to  follow,  you  vnW 
have  to  come  back  to  the  sense-presentation  that  we 
34  are  deahng  with.  But  if  this  has  community  with  a 
false  presentation,  it  will  contain  no  standard  of  judge- 
ment,  because  a  special  property  cannot  be  indicated 
by  a  common  mark  ;  while  if  on  the  contrary  there  is 
nothing  in  common  between  them,  I  have  got  what  I 
want,  for  I  am  looking  for  a  thing  that  may  appear 
to  me  so  true  that  it  could  not  appear  to  me  in  the 
same  way  if  it  were  false.  They  are  involved  in  the 
same  mistake  when  under  stress  of  truth's  upbraiding 
they  desire  to  distinguish  between  things  perceived 
and  things  perspicuous,  and  try  to  prove  that  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  something  perspicuous  which  although 

received  at  the  same  time  (which  might  turn  one's  attention 
away  from  it,  irepicnrdv)  is  found  to  be  consistent  with  them. 

511 


CICERO 

aliquid  perspicui,  verum  illud  quidem  impressum  in 
animo  atque  mente,  neque  tamen  id  percipi  atque 
comprendi  posse.  Quo  enim  modo  perspicue  dixeris 
album  esse  aliquid  cum  possit  accidere  ut  id  quod 
nigrum  sit  album  esse  videatur,  aut  quo  modo  ista 
aut  perspicua  dicemus  aut  impressa  subtiliter  cum 
sit  incertum  vere  inaniterne  moveatur  ?  Ita  neque 
color  neque  corpus  nec  veritas  nec  argumentum  nec 

35  sensus  neque  perspicuum  ullum  relinquitur.  Ex  hoc 
illud  iis  usu  venire  solet  ut  quicquid  dixerint  a  quibus- 
dam  interrogentur  :  *  Ergo  istuc  quidem  percipis  ?  * 
Sed  qui  ita  interrogant,  ab  iis  irridentur  ;  non  enim 
urguent  ut  coarguant  neminem  ulla  de  re  posse  con- 
tendere  nec  adseverare  sine  aliqua  eius  rei  quam  sibi 
quisque  placere  dicit  certa  et  propria  nota.  Quod 
est  igitur  istuc  vestrum  probabile  ?  Nam  si  quod 
cuique   occurrit   et   primo   quasi    aspectu   probabile 

36  videtur  id  confirmatur,  quid  eo  levius  ?  Sin  ex  cir- 
cumspectione  aliqua  et  accurata  consideratione  quod 
visum  sit  id  se  dicent  sequi,  tamen  exitum  non  habe- 
bunt,  primum  quia  iis  visis  inter  quae  nihil  interest 
aequahter  omnibus  abrogatur  fides  ;  deinde,  cum 
dicant  posse  accidere  sapienti  ut  cum  omnia  fecerit 
diligentissimeque  circumspexerit  exsistat  aliquid 
quod  et  veri  simile  videatur  et  absit  longissime 
a  vero,  ne  si^  magnam  partem    quidem,  ut  solent 

*  ne  si  Mdv. :  si  codd. 
.512 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xi. 

a  true  imprint  on  the  mind  and  intellect  is  neverthe- 
less  incapable  of  being  perceived  and  grasped.  For 
how  can  you  maintain  that  something  is  perspicuously 
white  if  it  can  possibly  occur  that  a  thing  that  is 
black  may  appear  white,  or  how  shall  we  pronounce 
the  things  in  question  either  perspicuous  or  accurately 
imprinted  if  it  is  uncertain  whether  the  mental 
experience  is  true  or  unfounded  ?  In  this  way 
neither  colour  nor  sohdity  nor  truth  nor  argument  nor 

35 '^ensationnoranythingperspicuousisleft.     Thisiswhy  'Prob- 
it  is  their  usual  experience  that,  whatever  they  say,  fs^uJgiess 
some  people  ask  them  *  Then  anyway  you  do  per-  guesa-work. 
ceive  that,  do  you  ?  '     But  they  laugh  at  those  who 
put  this  question  ;    for  their  effort  is  not  aimed  at 
proving  that  it  cannot  ever  happen  that  a  man  may 
make  a  positive  assertion  about  a  thing  without  there 
being  some  definite  and  peculiar  mark  attached  to 
the  thing  that  he  in  particular  professes  to  accept. 
What  then  is  the  probability  that  your  school  talk 
about  ?     For  if  what  a  particular  person  happens  to 
encounter,  and  almost  at  first  glance  thinks  probable, 
is  accepted  as  certain,  what  could  be  more  frivolous 

36  tlian  that  ?  While  if  they  assert  that  they  foUow  a 
sense-presentation  after  some  circumspection  and 
careful  consideration,  nevertheless  they  will  not  find 
a  way  out,  first  because  presentations  that  have  no 
difference  between  them  are  all  of  them  equally 
refused  credence  ;  secondly,  when  they  say  that  it 
can  happen  to  the  wise  man  that  after  he  has  taken 
every  precaution  and  explored  the  position  most 
carefully  something  may  yet  arise  that  while  appear- 
ing  to  resemble  truth  is  really  very  far  remote  from 
truth,  they  will  be  unable  to  trust  tliemselves,  evcn 
if  they  advance  at  all  events  a  large  part  of  the  way, 

513 


CICERO 

dicere,  ad  verum  ipsum  aut  quam  proxime  accedant, 
confidere  sibi  poterunt.  Ut  enim  confidant,  notum 
iis  esse  debebit  insigne  veri,  quo  obscurato^  et  op- 
presso  quod  tandem  verum  sibi  videbuntur  attingere  ? 
Quid  autem  tam  absurde  dici  potest  quam  cum  ita 
loquuntur,  *  Est  hoc  quidem  illius  rei  signum  aut 
argumentum,  et  ea  re  id  sequor,  sed  fieri  potest  ut  id 
quod  significatur  aut  falsum  sit  aut  nihil  sit  omnino  '  ? 
Sed  de  perceptione  hactenus  ;  si  quis  enim  ea  quae 
dicta  sunt  labefactare  volet,  facile  etiam  absentibus 
nobis  veritas  se  ipsa  defendet. 

37  XII.  "  His  satis  cognitis  quae  iam  expUcata  sunt, 
nunc  de  adsensione  atque  adprobatione,  quam  Graeci 
a-vyKaraO^cTiv  vocant,  pauca  dicemus — non  quo  non 
latus  locus  sit,  sed  paulo  ante  iacta  sunt  fundamenta. 
Nam  cum  vim  quae  esset  in  sensibus  explicabamus, 
simul  illud  aperiebatur,  comprendi  multa  et  percipi 
sensibus,  quod  fieri  sine  adsensione  non  potest. 
Deinde  cum  inter  inanimum  et  animal  hoc  maxime 
intersit  quod  animal  agit  aliquid  (nihil  enim  agens 
ne  cogitari  quidem  potest  quale  sit),  aut  ei  sensus 
adimendus  est  aut  ea  quae  est  in  nostra  potestate  sita 

38  reddenda  adsensio.  At  vero  animus  quodam  modo 
eripitur  iis  quos  neque  sentire  neque  adsentiri  volunt ; 
ut  enim  necesse  est  lancem  in  hbra^  ponderibus  im- 

^  Lambinus  :  obscuro  codd. 
*  libram  codd.  nonnulli. 

<*  i.e.f  difFerent  from  what  it  seems. 

^  i.e.,  the  mental  acceptnnce  of  a  sensation  as  tnily  rcpre- 
senting  the  object ;  c/.  i.  40.  *  §  20. 

514) 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xi.— xii. 

as  they  are  in  the  habit  of  saying,  towards  the  actual 
truth,  or  indeed  come  as  near  to  it  as  possible.  For  to 
enable  them  to  trust  their  judgement,  it  wiW  be  neccs- 
sary  for  the  characteristic  mark  of  truth  to  be  known 
to  them,  and  if  this  be  obscured  and  suppressed,  what 
truth  pray  will  they  suppose  that  they  attain  to  ? 
What  language  moreover  could  be  more  absurd  than 
their  formula,  '  It  is  true  that  this  is  a  token  or  a 
proof  of  yonder  object,  and  therefore  I  follow  it,  but 
it  is  possible  that  the  object  that  it  indicates  may  be 
either  false  °  or  entirely  non-existent '  ?  But  enough 
on  the  subject  of  perception  ;  for  if  anybody  desires 
to  upset  the  doctrines  stated,  truth  will  easily  conduct 
her  own  defence,  even  if  we  dechne  the  brief. 

37  XII.  "  Now   that  we   are   sufficiently   acquainted  (4)  Cer- 
with  the  matters  already  unfolded,  let  us  say  a  few  J^ee"d,rd^for 
words   on   the    subject    of   *  assent  '  ^    or    approval  action : 
(termed  in  Greek  syncatathesis) — not  that  it  is  not  a  pSomena 
wide  topic,  but  the  foundations  have  been  laid  a  Httle  underiies 
time  back.     For  while  we  were  explaining  ^  the  power  conduct. 
residing  in  the  senses,  it  was  at  the  same  time  dis- 
closed  that  many  things  are  grasped  and  perceived 

by  the  senses,  which  cannot  happen  without  the  act 
of  assent.  Again,  as  the  greatest  difference  between 
an  inanimate  and  an  animate  object  is  that  an  ani- 
mate  object  performs  some  action  (for  an  entirely 
inactive  animal  is  an  utterly  inconceivable  thing), 
either  it  must  be  denied  the  possession  of  sensation 
or  it  must  be  assigned  a  faculty  of  assenting  as  a 

38  voluntary  act.  But  on  the  other  hand  persons  who 
refuse  to  exercise  eitlier  sensation  or  assent  are  in  a 
manner  robbed  of  the  mind  itself ;  for  as  the  scale  of 
a  balance  must  necessarily  sink  when  weights  are 
put  in  it,  so  the  mind  must  necessarily  yield  to  clear 

515 


CICERO 

positis  deprimi,  sic  animum  perspicuis  cedere  :  nam 
quo  modo  non  potest  animal  ullum  non  adpetere  id 
quod  aecommodatum  ad  naturam  adpareat  (Graeci  id 
oLKclov  appellant),  sic  non  potest  obiectam  rem  per- 
spicuam  non  adprobare.  Quamquam,  si  illa  de  quibus 
disputatum  est  vera  sunt,  nihil  attinet  de  adsensione 
omnino  loqui  ;  qui  enim  quid  percipit  adsentitur 
statim.  Sed  haec  etiam  sequuntur,  nec  memoriam 
sine  adsensione  posse  constare  nec  notitias  rerum  nec 
artes  ;  idque  quod  maximum  est,  ut  sit  aliquid  in 
nostra  potestate,  in  eo  qui  rei  nulli  adsentietur  non 
erit  :    ubi  igitur  virtus,  si  nihil  situm   est  in  ipsis 

39  nobis  ?  Maxime  autem  absurdum  vitia  in  ipsorum 
esse  potestate  neque  peccare  quemquam  nisi  adsen- 
sione,  hoc  idem  in  virtute  non  esse,  cuius  omnis  con- 
stantia  et  firmitas  ex  iis  rebus  constat  quibus  adsensa 
est  et  quas  adprobavit.  Omninoque  ante  videri 
aliquid  quam  agamus  necesse  est  eique  quod  visum 
sit  adsentiatur.i  Quare  qui  aut  visum  aut  adsensum 
tolUt,  is  omnem  actionem  tollit  e  vita. 

40  XIII.  "  Nunc  ea  \ddeamus  quae  contra  ab  his 
disputari  solent.  Sed  prius  potestis  totius  eorum 
rationis  quasi  fundamenta  cognoscere.  Componunt 
igitur  primum  artem  quandam  de  iis  quae  visa 
dicimus,  eorumque  et  vim  et  genera  definiunt,  in  his 
quale  sit  id  quod  percipi  et  comprendi  possit,  totidem 
verbis  quot  Stoici.     Deinde  illa  exponunt  duo  quae 

^  adsentiamur  Davies :  adsentiri  Lamhinns. 

"  See  §  30  n.  »  See  i.  32  n. 

*  Quasi  nniarks  a  tentative  rendering  of  defi^Xioi  as 
does  quandam  just  below  one  of  Tix^-q  (pavraaLQv ;  and 
apparently  also  quasi  contineant  renders  some  other  Greek 
teclmical  terni,  pr  rhaps  awex^i-v  ;   cf.  §§  20,  107. 

^  Id  ,  ,  ,  possit  =  T6  KaTaXrjTTTov. 

516 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xii. — xiii. 

presentations  :  since  just  as  no  animal  can  refrain 
from  seeking  to  get  a  thing  that  is  presented  to  its 
view  as  suited  to  its  nature  (the  Greeks  term  it 
oikeion)j  so  the  mind  cannot  refrain  from  giving 
approval  to  a  clear  object  when  presented  to  it. 
Nevertheless,  assuming  the  truth  of  the  positions 
discussed,  all  talk  whatever  about  assent  is  beside 
the  mark  ;  for  he  who  perceives  anything  assents 
immediately.  But  there  also  follow  "  the  points  that 
without  assent  memory,  and  mental  concepts  of 
objects,  and  sciences,  are  impossible  ;  and  most  im- 
portant  of  all,  granting  that  some  freedom  of  the  will 
exists,  none  will  exist  in  one  who  assents  to  nothing  ; 
where  then  is  virtue,  if  nothing  rests  with  ourselves? 

39  And  what  is  most  absurd  is  that  men's  vices  shoukl  be 
in  their  own  power  and  that  nobody  should  sin  except 
with  assent,  but  that  the  same  should  not  be  true 
in  the  case  of  virtue,  whose  sole  consistency  and 
strength  is  constituted  by  the  things  to  which  it  has 
given  its  assent  and  so  to  say  approval.^  And  speak- 
ing  generally,  before  we  act  it  is  essential  for  us  to 
experience  some  presentation,  and  for  our  assent 
to  be  given  to  the  presentation ;  therefore  one  who 
abohshes  either  presentation  or  assent  abohshes  all 
action  out  of  Hfe. 

40  XIII.  Now  let  us  examine  the  arguments  usually  (5)  The  New 
advanced  by  this  school  on  the  other  side.     But  before  ^'eoly"^''' 
that,  this  is   an  opportunity  for  you  to  learn  the  expounded : 
'  foundations  '  ^  of  their  whole  system.     Well,  they  uons^areta. 
beffin  by  constructing  a  '  science  of  presentations  '  distinguish- 

o  ir  able  from 

(as  we  render  the  term),  and  define  their  nature  and  faise  ones, 
classes,  and  in  particular  the  nature  of  that  which  can  f^  percep- 

.11  1  j  111      ^'*^"  cannot 

be  perceived  and  grasped,*^  at  as  great  a  length  as  do  le  trusted. 
the  Stoics.    Then  they  set  out  tlie  two  propositions 

517 


CICERO 

quasi  contineant  omnem  hanc  quaestionem  :  quae 
ita  \ideantur  ut  etiam  alia  eodem  modo  \dderi  possint 
nec  in  iis  quicquam  intersit,  non  posse  eorum  alia 
percipi,  alia  non  percipi  ;  nihil  interesse  autem,  non 
modo  si  omni  ex  parte  eiusdem  modi  sint,  sed  etiam 
si  discerni  non  possint.  Quibus  positis  unius  argu- 
menti  conclusione  tota  ab  iis  causa  comprenditur  ; 
composita  autem  ea  conclusio  sic  est  :  '  Eorum  quae 
videntur  aUa  vera  sunt,  aha  falsa  ;  et  quod  falsum 
est  id  percipi  non  potest.  Quod  autem  verum  visum 
est  id  omne  tale  est  ut  eiusdem  modi  falsum  etiam 
possit  videri ;  et  quae  \"isa  sunt^  eius  modi  ut  in  iis 
nihil  intersit,  non  potest^  accidere  ut  eorum  alia 
percipi  possint,  aha  non  possint.  Nullum  igitur  est 
41  visum  quod  percipi  possit.'  Quae  autem  sumunt  ut 
concludant  id  quod  volunt,  ex  his  duo  sibi  putant 
concedi,  neque  enim  quisquam  repugnat  :  ea  sunt 
haec,  quae  visa  falsa  sint,  ea  percipi  non  posse,  et 
alterum,  inter  quae  visa  nihil  intersit,  ex  iis  non 
posse  aha  talia  esse  ut  percipi  possint,  aha  ut  non 
possint.  ReUqua  vero  multa  et  varia  oratione  de- 
fendunt,  quae  sunt  item  duo,  unum,  quae  videantur, 
eorum  aUa  vera  esse,  aUa  falsa,  alterum,  omne  visum 

^  edd.  :  sint  codd.  ^  edd.  :  posse  codd. 

"  Two  objects  entirely  aUke,  A'  and  A",  present  the  same 
appearance  a  ;  but  so  also  do  two  objects  only  superficiaUy 
alike — thoii^h  not  really  aUke  entirely,  they  are  indistinguish- 
able  by  the  senses :  X  and  Y  both  present  the  same  appear- 
ance  x.  We  may  have  the  presentation  x  and  think  it  comes 
from  X  when  it  reaUy  comes  from  Y,  X  not  being;  there  :  in 
this  case  we  do  not  perceive  X.  Therefore  when  we  have  the 
presentation  x  and  think  it  comes  from  X  and  X  is  there, 
we  cannot  be  said  to  perceive  X.  Therefore  perception  ia 
impossible. 
518 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xiii. 

that  '  hold  together  '  the  whole  of  this  investigation, 
namely,  (1)  when  certain  objects  present  an  appear- 
ance  of  such  a  kind  that  other  objects  also  could 
present  the  same  appearance  without  there  being 
any  difference  between  these  presentations,  it  is  im- 
possible  that  the  one  set  of  objects  should  be  capable 
of  being  perceived  and  the  other  set  not  capable  ; 
but  (2),  not  only  in  a  case  in  which  they  are  ahke  in 
every  particular  is  there  no  difference  between  them, 
but  also  in  a  case  in  which  they  cannot  be  distin- 
guished  apart.  Having  set  out  these  propositions, 
they  include  the  whole  issue  M-ithin  a  single  syllo- 
gistic  argument ;  this  argument  is  constructed  as 
follows  :  '  Some  presentations  are  true,  others  false  ; 
and  what  is  false  cannot  be  perceived.  But  a  true 
presentation  is  invariably  of  such  a  sort  that  a  false 
presentation  also  could  be  of  exactly  the  same  sort  ; 
and  among  presentations  of  such  a  sort  that  there 
is  no  difference  between  them,  it  cannot  occur  that 
some  are  capable  of  being  perceived  and  others  are 
not.  Therefore  there  is  no  presentation  that  is 
41  capable  of  being  perceived.'"  Now  of  the  proposi- 
tions  that  they  take  as  premisses  from  which  to  infer 
the  desired  conclusion,  two  they  assume  to  be  granted, 
and  indeed  nobody  disputes  them  :  these  are,  that 
false  presentations  cannot  be  perceived,  and  the 
second,  that  of  presentations  that  have  no  difference 
between  them  it  is  impossible  that  some  should  be 
such  as  to  be  capable  of  being  perceived  and  others 
such  as  to  be  incapable.  But  the  remaining  pre- 
misses  they  defend  with  a  long  and  varied  discourse, 
these  also  being  two,  one,  that  of  the  objects  of  pre- 
sentations  some  are  true,  others  false,  and  the  other, 
that  every  presentation  arising  from  a  true  object  is 

519 


CICERO 

quod  sit  a  vero  tale  esse  quale  etiam  a  falso  possit 

42  esse.  Haec  duo  proposita  non  praetervolant,  sed  ita 
dilatant  ut  non  mediocrem  curam  adhibeant  et  dili- 
gentiam  ;  dividunt  enim  in  partes,  et  eas  quidem 
magnas,  primum  in  sensus,  deinde  in  ea  quae  ducun- 
tur  a  sensibus  et  ab  omni  consuetudine,  quam  ob- 
scurari  volunt,  tum  perveniunt  ad  eam  partem  ut  ne 
ratione  quidem  et  coniectura  ulla  res  percipi  possit. 
Haec  autem  universa  concidunt  etiam  minutius  ; 
ut  enim  de  sensibus  hesterno  sermone  vidistis,  item 
faciunt  de  reliquis,  in  singulisque  rebus,  quas  in 
minima  dispertiunt,  volunt  efficere  iis  omnibus  quae 
visa  sint  veris  adiuncta  esse  falsa  quae  a  veris  nihil 
differant ;   ea  cum  talia  sint,  non  posse  comprendi. 

43  XIV.  "  Hanc  ego  subtihtatem  philosophia  quidem 
dignissimam  iudico  sed  ab  eorum  causa  qui  ita 
disserunt  remotissimam.  Definitiones  enim  et  par- 
titiones,  et  horum  luminibus  utens  oratio,  tum 
simihtudines  dissimilitudinesque  et  earum  tenuis  et 
acuta  distinctio  fidentium  est  hominum  illa  vera  et 
firma  et  certa  esse  quae  tutentur,  non  eorum  qui 
clament  nihilo  magis  vera  iUa  esse  quam  falsa.  Quid 
enim  agant  si,  cum  aUquid  definierint,  roget  eos 
quispiam  num  illa  definitio  possit  in  aham  rem  trans- 
ferri  quamlubet  ?  Si  posse  dixerint,  quid  dicere 
Imbeant  cur  illa  vera  definitio  sit  ?  si  negaverint, 
fatendum  sit,  quoniam  vel  illa  vera  definitio  transferri 

°  Luminaf  a  technical  term  of  rhetoric,  used  to  translate 
crx^AtciTa. 
520 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xiii.— xiv. 

of  such  a  nature  that  it  could  also  arise  from  a  false 
t2  object.     These  two  propositions  they  do  not  skim 
over,  but  develop  with  a  considerable  apphcation  of 
care  and  industry  ;    they  divide  them  into  sections, 
and  those  of  wide  extent  :    first,  sensations  ;    next, 
inferences   from   sensations    and   from   general    ex- 
perience,  which   they  deem  to  lack   clarity ;    then 
they  come  to  the  section  proving  the  impossibiUty  of 
perceiving  anything  even  by  means  of  reasoning  and 
inference.     These  general  propositions  they  cut  up 
into    still    smaller    divisions,    employing    the    same 
method   with   all   the   other   topics   as   you   saw   in 
yesterday's  discourse  that  they  do  with  sensation, 
and  aiming  at  proving  in  the  case  of  each  subject, 
minutely    subdivided,    that    all    true    presentations 
are  coupled  with  false  ones  in  no  way  differing  from 
the  true,  and  that  this  being  the  nature  of  sense- 
presentations,  to  comprehend  them  is  impossible. 
13      XIV.  "  In  my  own  judgement  this  minuteness  al-  (6)Pre- 
though  no  doubt  highly  worthy  of  philosophy  is  at  crlV/S  of 
the  same  time  absolutely  remote  from  the  position  the  New 
of  the  authors  of  this  Hne  of  argument.   For  definitions  it  m-^"^^ ' 
and  partitions,  and  language  employing  figures  **  ^f  J^}.'^^?^^.^^ 
this  class,  as  also  comparisons  and  distinctions  and  and 
their  subtle  and  minute  classification,  are  the  weapons  r^*s<^"'"S. 
of  persons  who  are  confident  that  the  doctrines  they 
are  defending  are  true  and  established  and  certain,  not 
of  those  who  loudly  proclaim  that  they  are  no  more 
true  than  false.  For  what  would  they  do  if,  when  they 
have  defined  something,  somebody  were  to  ask  them 
whether  that  particular  defimtion  can  be  carried  over 
to  any  other  thing  you  hke  ?     If  they  say  it  can, 
what  proof  could  they  put  forward  that  the  definition 
is  true  ?    if  they  say  it  cannot,  they  woukl  have  to 

521 


CICERO 

non  possit  in  falsum,  quod  ea  definitione  explicetui 
id  percipi  posse,  quod  minime  illi  volunt.  Eadem 
44  dici  poterunt  in  omnibus  partibus.  Si  enim  dicent  ea 
de  quibus  disserent  se  dilucide  perspicere,  nec  ulla 
communione  visorum  impediri,  comprendere  ea  se 
posse  fatebuntur.  Sin  autem  negabunt  vera  visa  a 
falsis  posse  distingui,  qui  poterunt  longius  progredi  ? 
occurretur  enim  sicut  occursum  est ;  nam  concludi 
argumentum  non  potest  nisi  iis  quae  ad  concludendum 
sumpta  erunt  ita  probatis  ut  falsa  eiusdem  modi 
nulla  possint  esse  :  ergo  si  rebus  comprensis  et 
perceptis  nisa  et  progressa  ratio  hoc  efRciet,  nihil 
posse  comprendi,  quid  potest  reperiri  quod  ipsum 
sibi  repugnet  magis  ?  Cumque  ipsa  natura  accu- 
ratae  orationis  hoc  profiteatur,  se  ahquid  patefac- 
turam  quod  non  appareat  et  quo  id  facihus  adsequatur 
adhibituram  et  sensus  et  ea  quae  perspicua  sint, 
quahs  est  istorum  oratio  qui  omnia  non  tam  esse 
quam  videri  volunt  ?  Maxime  autem  convincuntur 
cum  haec  duo  pro  congruentibus  sumunt  tam  vehe- 
menter  repugnantia,  primum  esse  quaedam  falsa 
visa,  quod  cum  volunt  declarant  quaedam  esse  vera, 
deinde  ibidem  inter  falsa  visa  et  vera  nihil  interesse  : 


•  i.e.t  a  thing  misconceived  (not  '  an  unreal  thing  '). 
*»  Cf.  §  34  iniL 


522 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xiv. 

admit  that,  since  even  this  true  definition  cannot  be 
apphed  to  a  false  object,'^  the  object  explained  by  the 
delinition  can  be  perceived,  and  this  they  will  not 
allow  at  any  price.  The  same  argument  it  will  be 
possible  to  employ  at  every  section  of  the  discussion. 
44  For  if  they  say  that  they  can  see  through  the  matters 
that  they  are  discussing  with  complete  clearness,  and 
are  not  hampered  by  any  overlapping  ^  of  presenta- 
tions,  they  will  confess  that  they  can  '  comprehend  ' 
them.  But  if  they  maintain  that  true  presentations 
cannot  be  distinguished  from  false  ones,  how  will  they 
be  able  to  advance  any  further  ?  for  they  will  be 
met  as  they  were  met  before  ;  since  vaUd  inference  is 
not  possible  unless  you  accept  the  propositions  taken 
as  premisses  as  so  fully  proved  that  there  cannot 
possibly  be  any  false  propositions  that  resemble 
them  :  therefore  if  a  process  of  reasoning  that  has 
carried  through  its  procedure  on  the  basis  of  things 
grasped  and  perceived  arrives  at  the  conclusion 
that  nothing  can  be  grasped,  what  more  self- 
destructive  argument  could  be  discovered  ?  And 
when  the  very  nature  of  accurate  discourse  professes 
the  intention  of  reveaUng  something  that  is  not 
apparent,  and  of  employing  sensations  and  manifest 
presentations  to  faciUtate  the  attainment  of  this 
result,  what  are  we  to  make  of  the  language  of  these 
thinkers  who  hold  that  everything  does  not  so  much 
exist  as  seem  to  exist  ?  But  they  are  most  completely 
refuted  when  they  assume  as  mutually  consistent 
these  two  propositions  that  are  so  violently  discrepant, 
first,  that  some  presentations  are  false,  a  view  that 
clearly  impUes  that  some  are  true,  and  then  in  the 
same  breath  that  there  is  no  difference  between  false 
presentations  and  true  ones  :   but  your  first  assump- 

523 


CICERO 

at  primuin  sumpseras  tamquam  interesset — ita 
priori  posterius,  posteriori  superius  non  iungitur. 

46  "  Sed  progrediamur  longius  et  ita  agamus  ut  nihil 
nobis  adsentati  esse  videamur  ;  quaeque  ab  his 
dicuntur  sic  persequamur  ut  nihil  in  praeteritis 
reUnquamus.  Primum  igitur  perspicuitas  illa  quam 
diximus  satis  magnam  habet  vim  ut  ipsa  per  sese  ea 
quae  sint  nobis  ita  ut  sint  indicet.  Sed  tamen  ut 
maneamus  in  perspicuis  firmius  et  constantius,  maiore 
quadam  opus  est  vel  arte  vel  dihgentia  ne  ab  iis 
quae  clara  sint  ipsa  per  sese  quasi  praestigiis  quibus- 
dam  et  captionibus  depellamur.  Nam  qui  voluit  sub- 
venire  erroribus  Epicurus^  iis  qui  videntur  conturbare 
veri  cognitionem,  dixitque  sapientis  esse  opinionem 
a  perspicuitate  seiungere,  nihil  profecit,  ipsius  enim 
opinionis  errorem  nullo  modo  sustuHt. 

46  XV.  "  Quam  ob  rem  cum  duae  causae  perspicuis 
et  evidentibus  rebus  adversentur,  auxiha  totidem 
sunt  contra  comparanda.  Adversatur  enim  primum 
quod  parum  defigunt  animos  et  intendunt  in  ea 
quae  perspicua  sunt  ut  quanta  luce  ea  circumfusa 
sint  possint  agnoscere  ;  alterum  est  quod  fallacibus 
et  captiosis  interrogationibus  circumscripti  atque 
decepti  quidam,  cum  eas  dissolvere  non  possunt, 
desciscunt  a  veritate.  Oportet  igitur  et  ea  quae  pro 
perspicuitate  responderi  possunt  in  promptu  habere, 

^  [Epicurus]  Baiier. 

"  Quasi  quihvsdam  mark  praestigiis  as  a  translation  of 
<ro(piafMaTa,  paraphrased  by  captionibus. 
524, 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xiv.— xv. 

tion  implied  that  there  is  a  difference — thiis  3'our 
major  premiss  and  your  minor  are  inconsistent  with 
one  another. 

45  "  But  let  us  advance  further  and  proceed  in  such  From  sense- 
a  manner  as  not  to   appear  to   have   been  unduly  feason'^'^^ 
partial  to   our  owti  \-iews  ;    and  let  us  go  through  evoives 
the  doctrines  of  these  thinkers  so  thoroughly  as  to    ^°^  ^  ^*" 
leave  nothing  passed  over.    First  then  what  we  have 
termed  '  perspicuity  '  has  sufficient  force  of  itself  to  §17. 
indicate  to  us  things  that  are  as  they  are.    But  never- 
theless,  so  that  we  may  abide  by  things  that  are 
perspicuous  with  more  firmness  and  constancy,  we 
require  some  further  exercise  of  method  or  of  atten- 

tion  to  save  ourselves  from  being  dislodged  by 
'  trickeries  '  ^*  and  captious  arguments  from  positions 
that  are  clear  in  themselves.  For  Epicurus  who 
desired  to  come  to  the  relief  of  the  errors  that 
appear  to  upset  our  pow  er  of  knowing  the  truth,  and 
who  said  that  the  separation  of  opinion  from  per- 
spicuous  truth  was  the  function  of  the  wise  man, 
carried  matters  no  further,  for  he  entirely  failed  to 
do  away  with  the  error  connected  with  mere  opinion. 

46  XV.  "  Therefore  inasmuch  as  things  perspicuous  (7)  Logical 
and  evident  are  encountered  by  two  obstacles,  it  is  [he^New^' 
necessary  to  array  against  them  the  same  number  Academy : 
of  assistances.  The  hrst  obstacle  is  that  people  do  ^  ^  ^^  '^- 
not  fix  and  concentrate  their  minds  on  the  perspicuous 
objects  enough  to  be  able  to  recognize  in  how  much 

hght  they  are  enveloped  ;  the  second  is  that  certain 
persons,  being  entrapped  and  taken  in  by  fallacious 
and  captious  arguments,  when  they  are  unable  to 
refute  them  abandon  the  truth.  It  is  therefore  neces- 
sary  to  have  ready  the  counter-arguments,  of  which 
we  have  ahready  spoken,  that  can  be  advanced  in 

525 


CICERO 

de  quibus  iam  diximus,  et  esse  armatos  ut  occurrere 
possimus  interrogationibus  eorum  captionesque  dis- 

47  cutere,  quod  deinceps  facere  constitui.  Exponam 
igitur  generatim  argumenta  eorum,  quoniam  ipsi 
etiam  illi  solent  non  confuse  loqui.  Primum  conantur 
ostendere  multa  posse  videri  esse  quae  omnino  nulla 
sint,  cum  animi  inaniter  moveantur  eodem  modo 
rebus  iis  quae  nuUae  sint  ut  iis  quae  sint.  Nam  cum 
dicatis,  inquiunt,  visa  quaedam  mitti  a  deo,  velut  ea 
quae  in  somnis  videantur  quaeque  oraculis,  auspiciis, 
extis  declarentur  (haec  enim  aiunt  probari  Stoicis 
quos  contra  disputant),  quaerunt  quonam  modo  falsa 
visa  quae  sint  ea  deus  efficere  possit  probabilia,  quae 
autem  plane  proxime  ad  verum  accedant  efficere  non 
possit,  aut  si  ea  quoque  possit,  cur.  illa  non  possit 
quae  perdifficiliter,^  internoscantur  tamen,  et  si  haec, 

48  cur  non  inter  quae  nihil  sit^  omnino.  Deinde  cum 
mens  moveatur  ipsa  per  sese,  ut  et  ea  declarant  quae 
cogitatione  depingimus  et  ea  quae  vel  dormientibus 
vel  furiosis  videntur  non  numquam,  veri  simile  est 
sic  etiam  mentem  moveri  ut  non  modo  non  inter- 
noscat  vera  illa  visa  sint  anne  falsa  sed  ut  in  iis  nihil 
intersit  omnino  :  ut  si  qui  tremerent  et  exalbescerent 
vel  ipsi  per  se  motu  mentis  ahquo  vel  obiecta  terribili 


*  perdifficiliter  <internoscantur>  ?  Reid. 
*  intersit  Muller. 


526 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xv. 

defence  of  perspicuity,  and  to  be  armed  so  that  we 
mav  be  able  to  meet  their  arguments  and  shalter 
their  captions  ;   and  this  I  have  decided  on  as  my 

47  next  step.  I  will  therefore  set  out  their  arguments 
in  classified  form,  since  even  they  themselves  make  a 
practice  of  orderly  exposition.  They  first  attempt 
to  show  the  possibihty  that  many  things  may  appear 
to  exist  that  are  absolutely  non-existent,  since  the 
mind  is  deceptively  affected  by  non-existent  objects 
in  the  same  manner  as  it  is  affected  by  real  ones.  For, 
they  say,  when  your  school  asserts  that  some  presenta- 
tions  are  sent  by  the  deity — dreams  for  example,  and 
the  revelations  furnished  by  oracles,  auspices  and 
sacrifices  (for  they  assert  that  the  Stoics  against  whom 
they  are  arguing  accept  these  manifestations) — how 
possibly,  they  ask,  can  the  deity  have  the  power  to 
render  false  presentations  probable  and  not  have 
the  power  to  render  probable  those  which  approxi- 
mate  absolutely  most  closely  to  the  truth  ?  or 
else,  if  he  is  able  to  render  these  also  probable, 
why  cannot  he  render  probable  those  which  are  dis- 
tinguishable,  although  only  with  extreme  difficulty, 
from   false   presentations  ?    and   if  these,  why   not 

48  those  which  do  not  differ  from  them  at  all  ?  Then, 
since  the  mind  is  capable  of  entirely  self-originated 
motion,  as  is  manifest  by  our  faculty  of  mental  im- 
agination  and  by  the  visions  that  sometimes  appearto 
men  either  when  asleep  or  mad,  it  is  probable  that  the 
mind  may  also  be  set  in  motion  in  such  a  manner  that 
not  only  it  cannot  distinguish  whether  the  presenta- 
tions  in  question  are  true  or  false  but  that  there  really 
is  no  difference  at  all  between  them  :  just  as  if  people 
were  to  shiver  and  turn  pale  either  of  themselves  as 
a  result  of  some  mental  emotion  or  in  consequence 

527 


CICERO 

re  extrinsecus,  nihil  ut  esset  qui  distingueretur  tremor 
ille  et  pallor  neque  ut  quicquam  interesset  inter 
intestinum  et  oblatum.  Postremo  si  nulla  visa  sunt 
probabilia  quae  falsa  sint,  alia  ratio  est  ;  sin  autem 
sunt,  cur  non  etiam  quae  non  facile  internoscantur  ? 
cur  non  ut  plane  nihil  intersit  ?  praesertim  cura 
ipsi  dicatis  sapientem  in  furore  sustinere  se  ab  omni 
adsensu  quia  nulla  in  visis  distinctio  appareat. 
49  XVI.  "  Ad  has  omnes  visiones  inanes  Antiochus 
quidem  et  permulta  dicebat  et  erat  de  hac  una  re 
unius  diei  disputatio  ;  mihi  autem  non  idem  facien- 
dimi  puto,  sed  ipsa  capita  dicenda.  Et  primum  qui- 
dem  hoc  reprehendendum  quod  captiosissimo  genere 
interrogationis  utuntur,  quod  genus  minime  in  philo- 
sophia  probari  solet,  cum  aUquid  minutatim  et  gra- 
datim  additur  aut  demitur.  Soritas  hoc  vocant,  quia 
acervum  efficiunt  uno  addito  grano.  Vitiosum  sane 
et  captiosum  genus  !  Sic  enim  adscenditis  :  '  Si  tale 
visum  obiectum  est  a  deo  dormienti  ut  probabile  sit, 
cur  non  etiam  ut  valde  veri  simile  ?  cur  deinde  non 
ut  difficiUter  a  vero  internoscatur  ?  deinde  ut  ne 
internoscatur  quidem  ?    postremo  ut  nihil  inter  hoc 

"  Apparently  the  teclinical  term  is  jestingly  used  to  de- 
scribe  the  arguments  just  summarized. 

*»  aojpeirris  avXKoyiafjios,  the  conclusion  of  one  syllogism 
forming  the  major  premiss  of  the  next.  Each  step  may 
either  add  a  smaU  point,  as  in  the  example  above,  or  sub- 
tract  one,  as  in  the  practical  illustration  of  the  fallacy  that 
gave  it  its  name  {ratio  ruentis  acerui,  Horace) :  from  a  heap 
of  grain  one  grain  at  a  time  is  taken  away — at  what  point 
does  it  cease  to  be  a  heap  ? 

528 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xv.— x\i. 

of  encountering  some  terrifying  external  object,  with 
nothing   to   distinguish   between   the   two   kinds   of 
shivering  and  pallor,  and  without  any  diflerence  be- 
tween  the  internal  state  of  feeling  and  the  one  that 
came  from  without.    Lastly,  if  no  false  presentations 
at  all  are  probable,  it  is  another  story  ;  but  if  some  are, 
why  are  not   even  those  that  are   diificult  to  dis- 
tinguish  ?   why  not  those  that  are  so  much  hke  true 
ones  that  there  is  absolutely  no  difference  between 
them  ?  especially  as  you  yourselves  say  that  the  wise 
man  when  in  a  state  of  frenzy  restrains  himself  from 
all  assent  because  no  distinction  between  presenta- 
tions  is  visible  to  him. 
49      XVI.  "  In  answer  to  all  these  *  unfounded  sense-  These 
presentations  '  <»  Antiochus  indeed  used  to  advance  a  g^poged^ 
great  many  arguments,  and  also  he  used  to  devote  one  the  ditfer- 
whole  day's  debate  to  this  single  topic  ;  but  I  do  not  between 
think  that  I  had  better  do  the  same,  but  state  merelv  [^^^^  ^""^^, 

*      T  />  •  *    ^^^^  sensa 

the  heads  of  the  argument.  And  as  a  nrst  pomt  one  tious. 
must  criticize  them  for  employing  an  exceedingly 
captious  kind  of  argument,  of  a  sort  that  is  usually  by 
no  means  approved  of  in  philosophy — the  method  of 
proceeding  by  minute  steps  of  gradual  addition  or 
withdrawal.  They  call  this  class  of  arguments  soritae  ^ 
because  by  adding  a  single  grain  at  a  time  they  make 
a  heap.  It  is  certainly  an  erroneous  and  captious 
kind  of  argument !  for  you  go  on  mounting  up  in 
this  way  :  '  If  a  presentation  put  by  the  deity  before 
a  man  asleep  is  of  such  a  character  that  it  is  probable, 
why  not  also  of  such  a  cliaracter  that  it  is  extremely 
Hke  a  true  one  ?  then,  why  not  such  that  it  can  with 
difficulty  be  distinguished  from  a  true  one  ?  then, 
that  it  cannot  even  be  distingui^^hed  ?  finally,  that 
there  is  no  difference  between  the  one  and  the  other  ?  * 

529 


CICERO 

et  illud  intersit  ?  '  Huc  si  perveneris  me  tibi  primum 
quidque  concedente,  meum  vitium  fuerit ;    sin  ipse 

50  tua  sponte  processeris,  tuum.  Quis  enim  tibi  dederit 
aut  omnia  deum  posse  aut  ita  facturum  esse  si  possit  ? 
quo  modo  autem  sumis  ut,  si  quid  cui  simile  esse 
possit,  sequatur  ut  etiam  difficiliter  internosci  possit  ? 
deinde,  ut  ne  internosci  quidem  ?  postremo,  ut 
eadem  sint  ?  ut,  si  lupi  canibus  similes,  eosdem  dices 
ad  extremum.  Et  quidem  honestis  similia  sunt 
quaedam  non  honesta  et  bonis  non  bona  et  artificiosis 
minime  artificiosa  ;  quid  dubitamus  igitur  adfirmare 
nihil  inter  haec  interesse  ?  Ne  repugnantia  quidem 
videmus  ?  nihil  est  enim  quod  de  suo  genere  in  aliud 
genus  transferri  possit.  At  si  efficeretur  ut  inter  visa 
difFerentium  generum  nihil  interesset,  reperirentur 
quae  et  in  suo  genere  essent  et  in  aUeno  ;   quod  fieri 

61  qui  potest  ?  Omnium  deinde  inanium  visorum  una 
depulsio  est,  sive  illa  cogitatione  informantur,  quod 
fieri  solere  concedimus,  sive  in  quiete  sive  per  vinum 
sive  per  insaniam  :  nam  ab  omnibus  eiusdem  modi 
visis  perspicuitatem,  quam  mordicus  tenere  debemus, 
abesse  dicemus.  Quis  enim,  cum  sibi  fingit  aliquid 
et  cogitatione  depingit,  non  simul  ac  se  ipse  com- 
movit  atque  ad  se  revocavit  sentit  quid  intersit  inter 
530 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xvi. 

If  you  reach  this  conclusion  owlng  to  my  yielding  to 
you  each  successive  step,  the  fault  will  have  been 
mine  ;    but  if  you  get  there  of  your  ov,n  accord,  it 

60  will  be  yours.  For  who  will  have  granted  you  either 
that  the  deity  is  omnipotent,  or  that  even  if  he  can 
do  as  described  he  will }  and  how  do  you  make  such 
assumptions  that,  if  it  is  possible  for  .r  to  resemble 
t/,  it  will  follow  that  only  with  difficulty  can  x  and  z/ 
be  known  apart  ?  and  then,  that  they  cannot  even 
be  known  apart  ?  and  finally,  that  they  are  identical  ? 
for  example,  if  wolves  are  hke  dogs,  you  will  end  by 
saying  that  they  are  identicak  And  it  is  a  fact  that 
some  honourable  things  are  hke  dishonourable  ones 
and  some  good  things  hke  not  good  ones  and  some 
artistic  things  hke  inartistic  ones  ;  why  do  we  hesi- 
tate  therefore  to  aver  that  there  is  no  difference 
between  these  ?  Have  we  no  eye  even  for  incon- 
gruities  ?  for  there  is  nothing  that  cannot  be  carried 
over  from  its  own  class  into  anothcr  class.  But  if  it 
were  proved  that  there  is  no  diaerence  between 
presentations  of  different  classes,  we  should  find  pre- 
sentations  that  belonged  both  to  their  own  class  and 
to  one  foreign  to  them  ;  how  can  this  possibly  occur  ? 

61  Consequently  there  is  only  one  way  of  routing  the 
difficulty  about  unreal  presentations,  whether  de- 
picted  by  the  imagination,  which  we  admit  frequently 
to  take  place,  or  in  slumber  or  under  the  influence  of 
N^ine  or  of  insanity  :  we  shall  declare  that  all  pre- 
sentations  of  this  nature  are  devoid  of  perspicuity, 
to  which  we  are  bound  to  chng  tooth  and  naih  For 
who  when  feigning  to  himself  an  imaginary  picture 
of  some  object,  the  moment  he  bestirs  himself  and 
recalls  his  self-consciousness  does  not  at  once  per- 
cei  ve  the  difference  betweenperspicuous  presentations 

531 


CICERO 

perspicua  et  inania  ?  Eadem  ratio  est  somnioruni. 
Num  censes  Ennium  cum  in  hortis  cum  Servio  Galba 
vicino  suo  ambulavisset  dixisse  :  '  Visus  sum  mihi 
cum  Galba  ambulare  '  ?  At  cum  somniavit,  ita 
narravit  : 

visus  Homerus  adesse  poeta. 
Idemque  in  Epicharmo  : 

Nam  videbar  somniare  med  ego  esse  mortuom. 

Itaque  simul  ut  experrecti  sumus  visa  illa  contemni- 
mus  neque  ita  habemus  ut  ea  quae  in  foro  gessimus. 
62  XVII.  "  At  enim  dum  videntur  eadem  est  in 
somnis  species  eorumque^  quae  vigilantes  videmus  ! 
Primum  interest  ;  sed  id  omittamus,  illud  enim  dici- 
mus,  non  eandem  esse  vim  neque  integritatem  dor- 
mientium  et  vigilantium  nec  mente  nec  sensu.  Ne 
vinulenti  quidem  quae  faciunt  eadem  adprobatione 
faciunt  qua  sobrii  :  dubitant,  haesitant,  revocant  se 
interdum,  iisque  quae  videntur  imbecilHus  adsen- 
tiuntur  cumque  edormiverunt  illa  visa  quam  levia 
fuerint  intellegunt.  Quod  idem  contingit  insanis,  ut 
et  incipientes  furere  sentiant  et  dicant  ahquid  quod 
non  sit  id  videri  sibi,  et  cum  relaxentur  sentiant  atque 
illa  dicant  Alcmaeonis  : 

^  Hermann  :  eoriim  codd. 


«  The  Italian  Greek  (239-169  b.c.)  who  initiated  Latin 
poetry  in  Greek  metres.  He  adapted  Attic  tragedies,  e.g. 
Alcmaeon,  quoted  §§  52,  89,  and  wrote  Roman  ones;  but  his 
greatest  work  was  Annales,  an  epic  of  Roman  history  from 
which  comes  the  part  of  a  hexameter  quoted.    Cf.  §  88. 

*  The  chief  Dorian  comic  poet,  c.  540-450  b.c,  hved  at 
Hiero's  court  at  Syracuse. 

'  The  character  in  Ennius's  tragedy :  see  §  51  n.  and  §  89. 
532 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xvi. — xvii. 

and  unreal  ones  ?  The  same  applies  to  dreams. 
Do  yoii  fancy  that  whcn  Enniiis  °  had  been  walking 
in  his  grounds  with  his  neighbour  Servius  Galba  he 
used  to  say,  '  Mcthought  I  was  walking  with  Galba'  ? 
But  when  he  had  a  dream  he  told  the  story  in  this 
way  : 

Methought  the  poet  Homer  stood  beside  me. 
And  the  same  in  the  case  of  Epicharmus  ^  : 

For  methought  I  had  a  dream  that  I  myself  was  dead  and 
gone. 

And  so  as  soon  as  we  wake  up  we  make  hght  of  that 
kind  of  \isions,  and  do  not  deem  them  on  a  par  \vith 
the  actual  experiences  that  we  had  in  the  forum. 

XVn.  "  But  you  will  say  that  at  the  time  when 
we  are  experiencing  them  the  visions  we  have  in 
sleep  have  the  same  appearance  as  the  visual  pre- 
sentations  that  we  experience  while  awake  !  To 
begin  with,  there  is  a  difference  between  them  ;  but 
do  not  let  us  dwell  on  that,  for  our  point  is  that  when 
we  are  asleep  we  have  not  the  same  mental  or 
sensory  power  and  fulness  of  function  as  we  have 
when  awake.  Even  men  acting  under  the  influence 
of  wine  do  not  act  with  the  same  decision  as  they 
do  when  sober  :  they  are  doubtful  and  hesitating 
and  sometimes  pull  themselves  up,  and  they  give  a 
more  feeble  assent  to  their  sense-presentations  and, 
when  they  have  slept  it  ofF,  reahze  how  unsubstantial 
those  presentations  were.  The  same  happens  to  the 
insane  :  at  the  beginning  of  their  attack  they  are 
conscious  that  they  are  mad,  and  say  that  something 
is  appearing  to  them  that  is  not  real  ;  and  also  when 
the  attack  is  subsiding  they  are  conscious  of  it,  and 
say  things  hke  the  words  of  Alcmaeon  '^  : 

533 


CICERO 

Sed    mihi    ne    utiquam    cor  consentit   cum  oculorum 
aspectu. 

63  At  enim  ipse  sapiens  sustinet  se  in  furore  ne  ad- 
probet  falsa  pro  veris.  Et  alias  quidem  saepe,  si 
aut  in  sensibus  ipsius^  est  aliqua  forte  gravitas  aut 
tarditas,  aut  obscuriora  sunt  quae  videntur,  aut  a 
perspiciendo  temporis  brevitate  excluditur.  Quam- 
quam  totum  hoc,  sapientem  aliquando  sustinere 
adsensionem,  contra  vos  est ;  si  enim  inter  visa  nihil 
interesset,  aut  semper  sustineret  aut  numquam. 
Sed  ex  hoc  genere  toto  perspici  potest  levitas  orationis 
eorum,  qui  omnia  cupiunt  confundere.  Quaerimus 
gravitatis,  constantiae,  firmitatis,  sapientiae  iudicium, 
utimur  exemplis  somniantium,  furiosorum,  ebrio- 
sorum.  Illud  attendimus  in  hoc  omni  genere  quam 
inconstanter  loquamur  ?  Non  enim  proferremus  vino 
aut  somno  oppressos  aut  mente  captos  tam  absurde 
ut  tum  diceremus  interesse  inter  vigilantium  visa  et 
sobriorum  et  sanorum  et  eorum  qui  essent  aliter  ad- 

64  fecti,  tum  nihil  interesse.  Ne  hoc  quidem  cernunt, 
omnia  se  reddere  incerta,  quod  nolunt  (ea  dico  in- 
certa  quae  aSrjka  Graeci)  ?  si  enim  res  se  ita  habeant 
ut  nihil  intersit  utrum  ita  cui  videantur^  ut  insano 
an  sano,  cui  possit  exploratum  esse  de  sua  sanitate  ? 

^  ipsis  ?  Reid,  -  ed.  :  videatur  codd. 

524' 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xvii. 

But  my  mind  agrees  in  no  way  with  the  vision  of  my 
eyes. 

53  But  you  will  say  that  the  \vise  man  in  an  attack  of 
madness  restrains  himself  from  accepting  false  pre- 
sentations  as  true.  So  indeed  he  often  does  on  other 
occasions,  if  his  own  senses  happen  to  contain  an 
element  of  heaviness  or  slo^\Tiess,  or  if  the  presenta- 
tions  are  rather  obscure,  or  if  he  is  debarred  by  lack 
of  time  from  a  close  scrutiny.  Although  this  ad- 
mission,  that  the  ^vise  man  sometimes  withholds  his 
assent,  goes  wholly  against  your  school  ;  for  if  pre- 
sentations  were  indistinguishable,  he  would  either 
withhold  his  assent  always  or  never.  But  out  of  all 
this  what  is  '  perspicuous  '  is  the  lack  of  substance  in 
the  case  put  by  these  thinkers,  who  aspire  to  intro- 
duce  universal  confusion.  What  we  are  looking  for 
is  a  canon  of  judgement  proper  to  dignity  and  con- 
sistency,  to  firmness  and  \Wsdom,  what  we  find  are 
instances  taken  from  dreamers,  lunatics  and  drunk- 
ards.  Do  we  notice  in  all  this  department  how  in- 
consistent  that  talk  is  ?  If  we  did,  we  should  not 
bring  forward  people  who  are  tipsy  or  fast  asleep  or 
out  of  their  minds  in  such  a  ridiculous  fashion  as  at 
one  moment  to  say  that  there  is  a  difference  between 
the  presentations  of  the  waking  and  sober  and  sane 
and  of  those  in  other  conditions,   and   at   another 

>4  moment  to  say  that  there  is  no  difference.     Do  they  (S)  Finai 
not  even  see  that  they  make  everything  uncertain —  of'the  New 
a  position  which  they  repudiate  (I  use  '  uncertain  '  Academy. 
to  translate  the  Greek  adela)  ?    for  if  objects  are  so 
constituted  that  it  makes  no  difFerence  whether  they 
appear  to  anybody  as  they  do  to  a  madman  or  as  they 
do  to  a  sane  person,  who  can  be  satisfied  of  his  own 
sanity  ?  to  desire  to  produce  this  state  of  afFairs  is  in 

5S5 


CICERO 

quod  velle  efficere  non  mediocris  insaniae  est.  Simili- 
tudines  vero  aut  geminorura  aut  signorum  anulis 
impressorum  pueriliter  consectantur.  Quis  enim 
nostrum  similitudines  negat  esse,  cum  eae  plurimis 
in  rebus  appareant  ?  sed  si  satis  est  ad  tollendam 
cognitionem  similia  esse  multa  multorum,  cur  eo  non 
estis  contenti,  praesertim  concedentibus  nobis,  et 
cur  id  potius  contenditis  quod  rerum  natura  non 
patitur,  ut  non  in^  suo  quidque  genere  sit  tale  quale 
est  nec  sit  in  duobus  aut  pluribus  nulla  re  differens 
ulla  communitas  ?  Ut  si^  sint  et  ova  ovorum  et  apes 
apium  simillimae,  quid  pugnas  igitur  ?  Aut  quid  tibi 
vis  in  geminis  ?  conceditur  enim  similes  esse,  quo 
contentus  esse  potueras  :  tu  autem  vis  eosdem  plane 
55  esse,  non  similes,  quod  fieri  nullo  modo  potest.  Dein 
confugis  ad  physicos,  eos  qui  maxime  in  Academia 
inridentur,  a  quibus  ne  tu  quidem  iam  te  abstinebis, 
et  ais  Democritum  dicere  innumerabiles  esse  mundos, 
et  quidem  sic  quosdam  inter  sese  non  solum  similes 
sed  undique  perfecte  et  absolute  pares'  ut  inter  eos 
nihil  prorsus  intersit  [et  eo*  quidem  innumerabiles],' 
itemque  homines.  Deinde  postulas  ut,  si  mundus 
ita  sit  par  alteri  mundo  ut  inter  eos  ne  minimum  qui- 
dem  intersit,  concedatur  tibi  ut  in  hoc  quoque  nostro 
mundo  ahquid  ahcui  sic  sit  par  ut  nihil  differat,  nihil 

*  non  in  Ilalm  :  non  codd,  ^  si  Miiller  :  sibi  codd. 

^  pares  Christ :  ita  pares  codd. 
*  eos  edd.  ^  secl.  Halm. 

*•  Ut  non  depends  on  both  contenditis  and  non  patitur  and 
introduces  both  sit  tale  quale  est  and  nec  sit  ulla  communitas. 
The  assertion  refuted  by  nature  is  that  uniqueness  and 
heterogeneity  are  not  universal  {nulla  re  differen^  rer.ders 
dot'i0o/)os,  and  communitas  iTrifxi^ia  or  dTrapaWa^fa,  'urdis- 
tinguishableness,'  c/.  §  34). 
536 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xvii. 

itself  no  inconsiderable  mark  of  insanity.  But  the 
way  in  wliich  they  harp  on  cases  of  resemblance 
between  twins  or  between  the  seals  stamped  by 
signet-rings  is  childish.  For  which  of  us  denies  that 
resemblances  exist,  since  they  are  manifest  in  ever 
so  many  things  ?  but  if  the  fact  that  many  things  are 
hke  niany  other  things  is  enough  to  do  away  with 
knowledge,  why  are  you  not  content  with  that, 
especially  as  we  admit  it,  and  why  do  you  prefer  to 
urge  a  contention  utterly  excluded  by  the  nature  of 
things,  denying  that  everything  is  what  it  is  in  a 
class  of  its  own  and  that  two  or  more  objects  never 
possess  a  common  character  ditfering  in  nothing  at 
all °  ?  For  example ,  granting  that  eggs  are  extremely 
hke  eggs  and  bees  hke  bees,  wliy  therefore  do  you 
do  battle  ?  Or  what  are  you  at  in  this  matter  of 
twins  ?  for  it  is  granted  that  two  twins  are  ahke, 
and  that  might  have  satisfied  you  ;  but  you  want 
them  to  be  not  ahke  but  downright  identical,  which 
5  is  absolutely  impossible.  Then  you  fly  for  refuge  The  eariy 
to  the  natural  philosophers,  the  favourite  butts  of  areout^^of 
ridicule  in  the  Academy,  from  whom  even  you  can  ^Jate. 
no  longer  keep  your  hands,  and  you  declare  that 
Democritus  says  that  there  are  a  countless  number  of 
worlds,  and  what  is  more  that  some  of  them  to  such 
an  extent  not  merely  resemble  but  completely  and 
absolutely  match  each  other  in  every  detail  that  there 
is  positively  no  difference  between  them,  and  that 
the  same  is  true  of  human  beings.  Then  you  demand 
that  if  one  world  so  completely  matches  another 
world  that  there  is  not  even  the  smallest  difference 
between  them,  it  shall  be  granted  to  you  that  in  this 
world  of  ours  hkewise  some  one  thing  so  completely 
matches  some  other  thing  that  there  is  no  difference 

537 


CICERO 

intersit ;  cur  enim,  inquies,  cum  ex  illis  individuis 
unde  omnia  Democritus  gigni  adflrmat,  in  reliquis 
mundis  et  in  iis  quidem  innumerabilibus  innumera- 
biles  Q.  Lutatii  Catuli  non  modo  possint  esse  sed 
etiam  sint,  in  hoc  tanto  mundo  Catulus  alter  non 
possit  effici  ? 

56  XVIII.  "  Primum  quidem  me  ad  Democritum 
vocas  ;  cui  non  adsentior  potiusque  refello  propter 
id  quod  dilucide  docetur  a  politioribus  physicis, 
singularum  rerum  singulas  proprietates  esse.  Fac 
enim  antiquos  illos  Servilios,  qui  gemini  fuerunt,  tam 
similes  quam  dicuntur  :  num  censes  etiam  eosdem 
fuisse  ?  Non  cognoscebantur  foris,  at  domi ;  non  ab 
aHenis,  at  a  suis.  An  non  videmus  hoc  usu  venisse* 
ut,  quos  numquam  putassemus  a  nobis  internosci 
posse,  eos  consuetudine  adhibita  tam  facile  inter- 
nosceremus   uti   ne   minimum   quidem   similes   esse 

57  ^iderentur  ?  Hic  pugnes  licet,  non  repugnabo  ; 
quin  etiam  concedam  illum  ipsum  sapientem  de  quo 
omnis  hic  sermo  est,  cum  ei  res  similes  occurrant 
quas  non  habeat  dinotatas,  retenturum  adsensum 
nec  umquam  uUi  \iso  adsensurum  nisi  quod  tale 
fuerit  quale  falsum  esse  non  possit.  Sed  et  ad  ceteras 
res  habet  quandam  artem  qua  vera  a  falsis  possit 
distinguere,  et  ad  similitudines  istas  usus  adhibendus 

^  Davies  :  venire  codd. 

«  The  Stoics,  rf.  §  85. 
538 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xvii. — xviii. 

or  distinction  between  them  ;  for  what  is  the  reason, 
you  will  say,  why  whereas  in  the  rest  of  the  worlds, 
countless  numbers  as  they  are,  there  not  only  can 
be  but  actually  are  a  countless  number  of  Quintus 
Lutatius  Catuluses,  arisen  out  of  those  atoms  out  of 
which  Democritus  declares  that  everything  comes  into 
existence,  yet  in  this  vast  world  another  Catulus 
cannot  possibly  be  produced  ? 

6  XVIII.  "  In  the  first  place  indeed  you  summon  me  '^J^'"-^»  ^°<^ 
before  Democritus  ;  whose  opinion  I  do  not  accept  reaUy*"^* 
but  rather  reject,  on  the  ground  of  the  fact  that  is  ab£°^^^' 
lucidly  proved  by  more  accomplished  natural  philo- 
sophers,"  that  particular  objects  possess  particular 
properties.     For  suppose  that  the  famous  Servilius 

twins  of  old  days  did  resemble  each  other  as  com- 
pletely  as  they  are  said  to  have  done  :  surely  you  do 
not  think  that  they  were  actually  identical  ?  Out  of 
doors  they  were  not  known  apart,  but  at  home  they 
were  ;  they  were  not  by  strangers,  but  they  were  by 
their  own  people.  Do  we  not  see  that  it  has  come 
about  that  persons  whom  we  thought  we  should 
never  be  able  to  know  apart  we  have  come  by  the 
exercise  of  habit  to  know  apart  so  easily  that  they  did 

7  not  appear  to  be  even  in  the  least  degree  ahke  ?  At 
this  point  although  you  may  show  fight  I  shall  not 
fight  back  ;  indeed  I  will  actually  allow  that  the  ^^ise 
man  himself  who  is  the  subject  of  all  this  discussion, 
when  he  encounters  similar  things  that  he  has  not  got 
distinguished  apart,  will  reserve  his  assent,  and  will 
never  assent  to  any  presentation  unless  it  is  of  such 
a  description  as  could  not  belong  to  a  false  presenta- 
tion.  But  just  as  he  has  a  definite  technique  apphc- 
able  to  all  other  objects  to  enable  him  to  distinguish 
the  true  from  the  false,  so  to  the  resemblances  you 

5S9 


CICERO 

est  :  ut  mater  geminos  internoscit  consuetudine 
oculorum,  sic  tu  internosces  si  adsueveris.  Videsne 
ut  in  proverbio  sit  ovorum  inter  se  similitudo  ?  tamen 
hoc  accepimus,  Deli  fuisse  complures  salvis  rebus 
illis  qui  gallinas  alere  permultas  quaestus  causa 
solerent  ;    ii  cum  ovum  inspexerant,  quae  id  gallina 

58  peperisset  dicere  solebant.  Neque  id  est  contra  nos, 
nam  nobis  satis  est  ova  illa  non  internoscere,  nihil 
enim  magis  adsentiri  par  est  hoc  illud  esse  quasi^ 
inter  illa  omnino  nihil  interesset ;  habeo  enim  re- 
gulam  ut  taUa  visa  vera  iudicem  quaha  falsa  esse  non 
possint  ;  ab  hac  mihi  non  Hcet  transversum,  ut  aiunt, 
digitum  discedere,  ne  confundam  omnia.  Veri  enim 
et  falsi  non  modo  cognitio  sed  etiam  natura  tolletur 
si  nihil  erit  quod  intersit,  ut  etiam  illud  absurdum 
sit  quodinterdum  soletis  dicere,cum\isa  in  animos  im- 
primantur,  non  vos  id  dicere,  inter  ipsas  impressiones 
nihil  interesse,  sed  inter  species  et  quasdam  formas 
eorum.  Quasi  vero  non  specie  visa  iudicentur,  quae 
fidem  nullam  habebunt  sublata  veri  et  falsi  nota  ! 

69  Illud  vero  perabsurdum  quod  dicitis  probabiha  vos 
sequi  si  nuUa  re  impediamini.  Primum  qui  potestis 
non  impediri  cum  a  veris  falsa  non  distent  ?    deinde 

-quasi  Madvig :  quam  si  codd. 

"  Species  here  combines  the  sense  of  '  appearances  '  with 
that  of '  kinds  '  which  it  still  bears  in  zoology  ;  it  translates 
etdv,  and  quasdam  marks  formas  as  an  explanatory 
synonym. 

54,0 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xviii. 

adduce  he  has  to  apply  practice  :  just  as  a  mother 
knows  her  twins  apart  by  having  famiharized  her  eyes, 
so  you  will  know  them  apart  if  you  habituate  your- 
self.  Are  you  aware  that  the  hkcness  of  one  egg  to 
another  is  proverbial  ?  yet  we  have  been  told  that 
at  Delos  at  the  time  of  its  prosperity  a  number  of 
people  were  in  the  habit  of  keeping  large  numbers  of 
hens  for  trade  purposes  ;  these  poultry-keepers  used 
to  be  able  to  tell  which  hen  had  laid  an  egg  by  merely 

58  looking  at  it.  Nor  does  that  go  against  us,  for  we  are 
content  not  to  be  able  to  know  those  eggs  apart, 
since  to  agree  that  this  egg  is  the  same  as  that  egg, 
is  nevertheless  not  the  same  thing  as  if  there  really 
n-ere  no  distinction  between  them  ;  for  I  possess  a 
standard  enabhng  me  to  judge  presentations  to  be 
true  when  they  have  a  character  of  a  sort  that  false 
ones  could  not  have  ;  from  that  standard  I  may  not 
diverge  a  finger's  breadth,  as  the  saying  is,  lest  I 
should  cause  universal  confusion.  For  not  only  the 
knowledge  but  even  the  nature  of  true  and  false  will 
be  done  away  with  if  there  is  no  difference  between 
them,  so  that  even  the  remark  that  you  have  a  way 
of  occasionally  making  will  be  absurd — namely,  that 
what  you  assert  is  not  that  when  presentations  are 
impressed  on  to  the  mind  there  is  no  difference  be- 
tween  the  imprints  themselves,  but  that  there  is  no 
difference  between  their  *  species,'  or  so  to  say  their 
class-forms."  As  if  forsooth  presentations  were  not 
judged  wdth  reference  to  their  class,  and  will  have 
no  rehabihty  if  the  mark  of  truth  and  falsehood  is 

59  abohshed  !    But  the  height  of  absurdity  is  your  asser-  The  logicai 
tion  that  you  follow  probabilities  if  nothing  hampers  [ht^theory 
you.    In  the  first  place  how  can  you  be  unhampered  13  'suspense 
when  there  is  no  difference  between  true  presenta-  me^nt.^^ 

T  541 


CICERO 

quod  iudicium  est  veri  cum  sit  commune  falsi  ?  Ex 
his  illa  necessario  nata  est  e-ox'?.  id  est  adsensionis 
retentio,  in  qua  melius  sibi  constitit  Arcesilas,  si  vera 
sunt  quae  de  Carneade  non  nulli  existimant.  Si 
enim  percipi  nihil  potest  quod  utrique  visum  est, 
tollendus  adsensus  est ;  quid  enim  est  tam  futtile 
quam  quicquam  adprobare  non  cognitum  ?  Car- 
neadem  autem  etiam  heri  audiebamus  solitum  esse 
eo^  delabi  interdum  ut  diceret  opinaturum,  id  est 
peccaturum,  esse  sapientem.  Mihi  porro  non  tam 
certum  est  esse  aliquid  quod  comprendi  possit  (de 
quo  iam  nimium  etiam  diu  disputo)  quam  sapientem 
nihil  opinari,  id  est  numquam  adsentiri  rei  vel  falsae 
60  vel  incognitae.  Restat  illud  quod  dicunt  veri  in- 
veniundi  causa  contra  omnia  dici  oportere  et  pro 
omnibus.  Volo  igitur  videre  quid  invenerint.  *  Non 
solemus,'  inquit,  '  ostendere.'  *  Quae  sunt  tandem 
ista  mysteria,  aut  cur  celatis  quasi  turpe  aliquid  sen- 
tentiam  vestram  ?  *  *  Ut  qui  audient,'  inquit, '  ratione 
potius  quam  auctoritate  ducantur.'  Quid  si  utroque^  ? 
num  peius  est  ?  Unum  tamen  illud  non  celant, 
nihil  esse  quod  percipi  possit.  An  in  eo  auctoritas 
nihil  obest  ?  Mihi  quidem  videtur  vel  plurimum  ; 
quis  enim  ista  tam  aperte  perspicueque  et  perversa 

^  eo  inseruit  Davies. 
*  utrumque  codd.  plurimi. 


■  i.e.,  a  suspension  of  judgement 
542 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xviii. 

tions  and  false  ?  next,  wliat  criterion  is  therc  of  a 
true  presentation  if  one  criterion  belongs  in  common 
to  a  true  one  and  a  false  ?  These  considerations 
necessarilv  engendered  the  doctrine  of  epoche^'^  that 
is,  '  a  holding  back  of  assent,'  in  which  Arcesilas  was 
more  consistent,  if  the  opinions  that  some  people  hold 
about  Carneades  are  true.  For  if  nothing  that  has 
presented  itself  to  either  of  them  can  be  perceived, 
assent  must  be  ^^ithheld  ;  for  Mhat  is  so  futile  as  to 
approve  anything  that  is  not  known  ?  But  we  kept 
being  tokl  yesterday  that  Carneades  was  also  in  the 
habit  of  takino^  refuo-e  in  the  assertion  that  the  wise 
man  will  occasionally  hold  an  opinion,  that  is,  com- 
mit  an  error.  For  my  part,  moreover,  certain  as  I  am 
that  something  exists  that  can  be  grasped  (the 
point  I  have  been  arguing  even  too  long  already),  I 
am  still  more  certain  that  the  -wase  man  never  holds 
an  opinion,  that  is,  never  assents  to  a  thing  that  is 
60  either  false  or  unknown.  There  remains  their  state- 
ment  that  for  the  discovery  of  the  truth  it  is  necessary 
to  argue  against  all  things  and  for  all  things.  Well 
then,  I  should  hke  to  see  what  they  have  discovered. 

*  Oh,'  he  says,  '  it  is  not  our  practice  to  give  an 
exposition.'  *  What  pray  are  these  holy  secrets  of 
yours,  or  why  does  your  school  conceal  its  doctrine 
hke  something  disgraceful  ?  '     *  In  order,'  says  he, 

*  that  our  hearers  may  be  guided  by  reason  rather 
than  by  authority.'  Wliat  about  a  combination  of 
the  two  ?  is  not  that  as  good  ?  All  the  same,  there 
is  one  doctrine  that  they  do  not  conceal — the  im- 
possibiHty  of  perceiving  anything.  Does  authority 
offer  no  opposition  at  this  point  ?  To  me  at  all  events 
it  seems  to  offer  a  very  great  deal ;  for  who  would 
have   adopted  doctrines  so   openly   and  manifestly 

543 


CICERO 

et  falsa  secutus  esset,  nisi  tanta  in  Arcesila,  multo 
etiam  maior  in  Carneade  et  copia  rerum  et  dicendi 
vis  fuisset  ? 

61  XIX.  "  Haec  Antiochus  fere  et  Alexandreae  tum 
et  multis  annis  post  multo  etiam  adseverantius,  in 
S}Tia  cum  esset  mecum  paulo  ante  quam  est  mortuus. 
Sed  iam  confirmata  causa  te  hominem  amicissimum  " 
— me  autem  appellabat — "  et  aliquot  annis  minorem 
natu  non  dubitabo  monere  :  Tune,  cum  tantis  laudi- 
bus  philosophiam  extuleris  Hortensiumque  nostrum 
dissentientem  conmioveris,  eam  philosophiam  sequere 
quae  confundit  vera  cum  falsis,  spoliat  nos  iudicio, 
privat  adprobatione,  omnibus^  orbat  sensibus  ?  Et 
Cimmeriis  quidem,  quibus  aspectum  soHs  sive  deus 
aliquis  sive  natura  ademerat  sive  eius  loci  quem  in- 
colebant  situs,  ignes  tamen  aderant,  quorum  iUis  uti 
lumine  hcebat ;  isti  autem  quos  tu  probas  tantis 
offusis  tenebris  ne  scintillam  quidem  ullam  nobis  ad 
dispiciendum  rehquerunt  ;  quos  si  sequamur,  iis 
vinchs  simus  adstricti  ut  nos  commovere  nequeamus. 

62  Sublata  enim  adsensione  omnem  et  motum  animorum 
et  actionem  rerum  sustulerunt  ;  quod  non  modo  recte 
fieri  sed  omnino  fieri  non  potest.  Provide  etiam  ne 
uni  tibi  istam  sententiam  minime  hceat  defendere  ; 
an  tu,  cum  res  occultissimas  aperueris  in  lucemque 
protuleris  iuratusque  dixeris  ea  te  comperisse  (quod 

*  omni  aut  omnino  edd. 

•  The  Catihnarian  conspiracy,  63  b.c. 

^  Cicero  used  this  expression  in  the  senate,  and  it  became 
a  cant  phrase  with  which  he  was  often  taunted. 

'  A  hkely  emendation  gives  '  and  it  was  known  to  me 
too.' 

544 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xviii. — xix. 

Nvrong-headed  and  false,  unless  Arcesilas  had  pos- 
sessed  so  great  a  supply  of  facts  and  of  eloquence, 
and  Carneades  an  even  much  greater  ? 

61  XIX.  "  These   virtually   were   the   teachings   ad-  Common 
vanced   by    Antiochus   in    Alexandria   at   the    time  assumes 
mentioned,  and  also  even  much  more  dogmatically  the 
many  years  afterwards  when  he  was  staying  with  me  o^tfnow-' 
in  Syria  a  httle  before  his  death.    But  now  that  my  '^'^»®- 
case  is  estabhshed,  I  will  not  hesitate  to  give  some 
advice  to  you  as  a  very  dear  friend  " — he  was  address- 

ing  myself — "  and  a  person  some  years  my  junior  : 
Will  you,  who  have  lauded  philosophy  so  highly,  and 
have  shaken  our  friend  Hortensius  in  his  disagreement 
with  you,  follow  a  system  of  philosophy  that  con- 
founds  the  true  ^\1th  the  false,  robs  us  of  judgement, 
despoils  us  of  the  power  of  approval,  deprives  us  of 
all  our  senses  ?  Even  the  people  of  Cimmeria,  whom 
some  god,  or  nature,  or  the  geographical  position  of 
their  abode,  had  deprived  of  the  sight  of  the  sun, 
nevertheless  had  fires,  which  they  were  able  to  employ 
for  hght ;  but  the  individuals  whose  authority  you 
accept  have  so  beclouded  us  ^vith  darkness  that  they 
have  not  left  us  a  single  spark  of  hght  to  give  us  a 
ghmpse  of  sight  ;  and  if  we  followed  them,  we  should 
be  fettered  with  chains  that  would  prevent  our  being 

62  able  to  move  a  step.  For  by  doing  away  with  assent 
they  have  done  away  with  all  movement  of  the  mind 
and  also  all  physical  activity  ;  which  is  not  only  a 
mistake  but  an  absolute  impossibihty.  Be  careful 
too  that  you  are  not  the  one  person  for  whom  it  is 
most  iUegitimate  to  uphold  this  theory  of  yours  ; 
what,  when  it  was  you  who  exposed  and  brought 
to  Uffht  a  deeply  hidden  plot  °  and  said  on  oath  that 
you    knew  about  it '  *  (which  I  might  have  said  to  3, 

5^5 


CICERO 

mihi  quoque  licebat^  qui  ex  te  illa  cognoveram), 
negabis  esse  rem  ullam  quae  cognosci  comprendi  per- 
cipi  possit  ?  Vide  quaeso  etiam  atque  etiam  ne 
illarum  quoque  rerum  pulcherrimarum  a  te  ipso 
minuatur  auctoritas."  Quae  cum  dixisset  ille,  finem 
fecit. 
63  Hortensius  autem  vehementer  admirans,  quod 
quidem  perpetuo  Lucullo  loquente  fecerat,  ut  etiam 
manus  saepe  tolleret  (nec  mirum,  nam  numquam 
arbitror  contra  Academiam  dictum  esse  subtihus),me 
quoque  iocansne  an  ita  sentiens  (non  enim  satis  in- 
tehegebam)  coepit  hortari  ut  sententia  desisterem. 
Tum  mihi  Catulus,  "  Si  te,"  inquit,  "  Luculh  oratio 
flexit,  quae  est  habita  memoriter  accurate  copiose, 
taceo,  neque  te  quo  minus  si  tibi  ita  videatur  sen- 
tentiam  mutes  deterrendum  puto.  Illud  vero  non 
censuerim  ut  eius  auctoritate  moveare,  tantum  enim 
te  non  modo  monuit,"  inquit  adridens,  "  ut  caveres 
ne  quis  improbus  tribunus  plebis,  quorum  vides 
quanta  copia  semper  futura  sit,  arriperet  te  et  in 
contione  quaereret  qui  tibi  constares  cum  idem 
negares  quicquam  certi  posse  reperiri,  idem  te  com- 
perisse  dixisses.  Hoc  quaeso  cave  ne  te  terreat ; 
de  causa  autem  ipsa  mahm  quidem  te  ab  hoc  dissen- 
tire,  sin  cesseris  non  magnopere  mirabor,  memini 
enim  Antiochum  ipsum,  cum  annos  multos  aha  sen- 

^  hquebat  Klotz, 
5^6 


ACADEMICA,  11.  (Lucullus),  xix. 

having  learnt  about  it  from  you),  will  you  assert 
that  there  is  no  fact  whatever  that  can  be  learnt 
and  comprehended  and  perceived  ?  Pray  take 
care  again  and  again  that  you  may  not  yourself 
cause  the  authority  of  that  most  glorious  achieve- 
ment  also  to  be  diminished."  Having  said  this, 
he  ended. 
3  Hortensius  however,  indicating  emphatic  admira- 
tion,  as  he  had  in  fact  done  all  through  Lucullus's 
discourse,  frequently  even  raising  his  hands  in 
wonder  (and  that  was  not  surprising,  for  I  do  not 
think  the  case  against  the  Academy  had  ever  been 
argued  with  more  minute  precision),  began  to  exhort 
me  also,  whether  in  jest  or  earnest  (for  I  could  not 
quite  make  out),  to  abandon  my  opinion.  There- 
upon  Catulus  said  to  me,  "  If  Lucullus's  speech  has 
w^on  you  over — and  its  dehvery  showed  memory,  con- 
centration  and  fluency — ,  I  am  silent,  and  I  do  not 
think  you  ought  to  be  frightened  away  from  changing 
your  opinion  if  you  think  fit  to  do  so.  But  I  should 
not  advise  your  letting  his  authority  influence  you  ; 
for  he  all  but  warned  you  just  now,"  he  said  with  a 
smile  at  me,  "  to  be  on  your  guard  lest  some  Micked 
tribune  of  the  people — and  what  a  plentiful  supply 
there  ^\ill  always  be  of  them  you  are  well  aware — 
should  arraign  you,  and  cross-examine  you  in  a  pubhc 
assembly  as  to  your  consistency  in  both  denying  the 
possibihty  of  finding  anything  certain  and  asserting 
that  you  had  discovered  some  certainty.  Pray  don't 
be  alarmed  by  this  ;  but  as  to  the  actual  merits  of 
the  case,  although  I  should  it  is  true  prefer  you  to 
disagree  with  him,  if  you  give  in  I  shall  not  be  greatly 
surprised,  for  I  remember  that  Antiochus  himself  in 
spite  of  having  held  other  views  for  a  number  of 

547 


CICERO 

sisset,    simul    ac    visum    sit,    sententia    destitisse." 
Haec  cum  dixisset  Catulus,  me  omnes  intueri. 

64  XX.  Tum  ego,  non  minus  commotus  quam  soleo  in 
causis  maioribus,  huius  modi  quandam  orationem^ 
sum  exorsus.  "  Me,  Catule,  oratio  Luculli  de  ipsa  re 
ita  movit  ut  docti  hominis  et  copiosi  et  parati  et  nihil 
praetereuntis  eorum  quae  pro  illa  causa  dici  possent, 
non  tamen  ut  ei  respondere  posse  diffiderem  ;  auc- 
toritas  autem  tanta  plane  me  movebat,  nisi  tu  op- 
posuisses  non  minorem  tuam.     Adgrediar  igitur,  si 

65  pauca  ante  quasi  de  fama  mea  dixero.  Ego  enim  si 
aut  ostentatione  ahqua  adductus  aut  studio  certandi 
ad  hanc  potissimum  philosophiam  me  adplicavi,  non 
modo  stultitiam  meam  sed  etiam  mores  et  naturam 
condemnandam  puto.  Nam  si  in  minimis  rebus  per- 
tinacia  reprehenditur,  calumnia  etiam  coercetur,  ego 
de  omni  statu  consilioque  totius  vitae  aut  certare 
cum  ahis  pugnaciter  aut  frustrari  cum  alios  tum 
etiam  me  ipsum  vehm  ?  Itaque,  nisi  ineptum  puta- 
rem  in  tali  disputatione  id  facere  quod  cum  de  re 
pubhca  disceptatur  fieri  interdum  solet,  iurarem  per 
lovem  deosque   penates  me   et   ardere   studio   veri 

66  reperiendi  et  ea  sentire  quae  dicerem.  Qui  enim 
possum  non  cupere  verum  invenire,  cum  gaudeam  si 

*  LambiniLS  :  quadam  oratione  codd. 
548 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xix.— xx. 

years  abandoned  his  opinion  as  soon  as  he  saw  fit." 
After  these  words  from  Catulus,  everybody  looked 
towards  me. 

64  XX.  Thereupon  I,  feehng  quite  as  nervous  as  I  Cicero 
usually  do  when  I  have  a  specially  big  case  on,  began  !ie?ence'of 
what  was  almost  a  set  speech  on  the  following  Unes.  scepticism 
"  For  my  part,  Catulus,  Lucu]lus's  speech  on  the 
actual  merits  of  the  issue  has  affected  me  as  that  of  a 
scholarly,  fluent  and  well-equipped  person  who  passes 

by  none  of  the  arguments  that  can  be  advanced  in 
support  of  the  case  put  forward,  though  all  the  same 
not  to  the  point  of  my  distrusting  my  abihty  to 
answer  him  ;  yet  his  great  authority  was  unquestion- 
ably  working  upon  me,  had  you  not  set  against  it 
your  authority  which  is  no  smaller.  I  will  therefore 
set  about  it,  after  a  few  prehminary  remarks  on  the 
subject  of  my  own  reputation,  if  I  may  use  the  term. 

65  For  if  my  own  motive  in  choosing  this  particular  (i)  Pre- 
school    of  philosophy  for  my   adherence  was  some  I^^J^qI,^ 
sort  of  ostentation  or  combativeness,  I  consider  that  desire  for 
not  merely  my  folly  but  even  my  moral  character  *™  ^* 
deserves  condemnation.     For  if  in  the  most  trifling 
matters  we  censure  obstinacy  and  actually  punish 
chicanery,  am  I  hkely  to  want  either  to  join  battle 

\\  ith  others  for  the  sake  of  fighting,  or  to  deceive  not 
only  others  but  myself  also,  when  the  entire  system 
and  principle  of  the  whole  of  hfe  is  the  issue  ? 
Accordingly  unless  I  thought  it  foohsh  in  such  a 
discussion  to  do  what  is  customary  occasionally  in 
pohtical  controversy,  I  should  swear  by  Jove  and  the 
fiods  of  my  household  that  I  am  fired  with  zeal  for 
the  discovery  of  the  truth,  and  that  I  really  hold  the 

66  opinions  that  I  am  stating.     For  how  can  I  fail  to  be 
eager  for  the  discovery  of  truth,  when  I  rejoice  if  I 

549 


CICERO 

simile  veri  quid  invenerim  ?  Sed,  ut  hoc  pulcherri- 
mnm  esse  iudico,  vera  videre,  sic  pro  veris  probare 
falsa  turpissimum  est.  Nec  tamen  ego  is  sum  qui 
nihil  umquam  falsi  adprobem,  qui  numquam  ad- 
sentiar,  qui  nihil  opiner,  sed  quaerimus  de  sapiente. 
Ego  vero  ipse  et  magnus  quidem  sum  opinator  (non 
enim  sum  sapiens)  et  meas  cogitationes  sic  derigo, 
non  ad  illam  parvulam  Cynosuram  qua 

fidunt  duce  nocturna  Phoenices  in  alto, 

ut  ait  Aratus,  eoque  derectius  gubernant  quod  eam 
tenent  quae 

cursu  interiore  brevi  convertitur  orbe, 
sed  HeHcen  et  clarissimos  Septemtriones,  id  est  ra- 
tiones  has  latiore^  specie,  non  ad  tenue  eUmatas.  Eo 
fit  ut  errem  et  vager  latius  ;  sed  non  de  me,  ut  dixi, 
sed  de  sapiente  quaeritur.  Visa  enim  ista  cum  acriter 
mentem  sensumve  pepulerunt  accipio,  iisque  inter- 
dum  etiam  adsentior  (nec  percipio  tamen,  nihil  enim 
arbitror  posse  percipi) — non  sum  sapiens,  itaque  visis 
cedo  neque  possum  resistere  ;  sapientis  autem  hanc 
censet  Arcesilas  vim  esse  maximam,  Zenoni  adsen- 
tiens,  cavere  ne  capiatur,  ne  fallatur  videre — nihil  est 
enim  ab  ea  cogitatione  quam  habemus  de  gravitate 

^  latiores  ?  Reid. 


<•  The  word  opinator  is  coined  to  suit  the  pretended  self- 
depreciation  of  the  speaker. 

*•  See   N.D.   ii.    104    n.,    106 :     Cicero    quotes   his    own 
translation. 
550 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xx. 

have  discovered  something  that  resembles  truth  ? 
But  just  as  I  deem  it  supremely  honourable  to  hokl 
true  views,  so  it  is  supremely  disgraceful  to  approve 
falsehoods  as  true.  And  nevertheless  I  myself  am 
not  the  sort  of  person  never  to  give  approval  to  any- 
thing  false,  never  give  absolute  assent,  never  hold 
an  opinion ;  it  is  the  ^vise  man  that  we  are  investi- 
gating.  For  my  own  part  however,  although  I  am 
a  great  opinion-holder '^  (for  I  am  not  a  wise  man), 
at  the  same  time  the  way  in  which  I  steer  my  think- 
ing  is  not  by  that  tiny  star,  the  Cynosure,  in  which 

Phoenicians  place  their  trust  by  night 
To  guide  them  on  the  deep, 

as  Aratus  ^  puts  it,  and  steer  the  straighter  because 
they  keep  to  her  who 

revolves  upon 
An  inner  circle  and  an  orbit  brief, 

but  by  HeUce  and  the  resplendent  Septentriones, 
that  is,  by  these  theories  of  wider  aspect,  not  fined 
do^vn  and  over-subtihzed.  The  result  is  that  I 
roam  and  wander  more  widely  ;  but  it  is  not  I,  as  I 
said,  but  the  wise  man  that  is  the  subject  of  our 
inquiry.  For  when  the  presentations  you  talk  of 
have  struck  my  mind  or  my  sense  sharply  I  accept 
them,  and  sometimes  I  actually  give  assent  to  them 
(though  nevertheless  I  do  not  perceive  them,  for  I 
hold  that  nothing  can  be  perceived) — I  am  not  a 
wise  man,  and  so  I  yield  to  presentations  and  cannot 
stand  out  against  them  ;  whereas  the  strongest 
point  of  the  wise  man,  in  the  opinion  of  Arcesilas, 
agreeing  with  Zeno,  hes  in  avoiding  being  taken  in 
and  in  seeing  that  he  is  not  deceived — for  nothing  is 
more  removed  from  the  conception  that  we  have  of 

551 


CICERO 

sapientis  errore,  levitate,  temeritate  diiunctius. 
Quid  igitur  loquar  de  firmitate  sapientis  ?  quem 
quidem  nihil  opinari  tu  quoque,  Luculle,  concedis. 
Quod  quoniam  a  te  probatur  (ut  praepostere  tecum 
agam  ;   mox  referam  me  ad  ordinem),  haec  primum 

67  conclusio  quam  habeat  \im  considera  :  XXI.  '  Si  ulli 
rei  sapiens  adsentietur  umquam,  ahquando  etiam 
opinabitur  ;  numquam  autem  opinabitur  ;  nulli 
igitur  rei  adsentietur.'  Hanc  conckisionem  Arcesilas 
probabat,  confirmabat  enim  et  primum  et  secundura 
(Carneades  non  numquam  secundum  illud  dabat,  ad- 
sentiri  aliquando  :  ita  sequebatur  etiam  opinari,  quod 
tu  non  vis,  et  recte,  ut  mihi  videris).  Sed  illud 
primum,  sapientem  si  adsensurus  esset  etiam  opina- 
turum,  falsum  esse  et  Stoici  dicunt  et  eorum  adstipu- 
lator  Antiochus  ;  posse  enim  eum  falsa  a  veris  et  quae 
non  possint  percipi  ab  iis  quae  possint  distinguere. 

68  Nobis  autem  primum,  etiam  si  quid  percipi  possit, 
tamen  ipsa  consuetudo  adsentiendi  periculosa  esse 
videtur  et  lubrica,  quam  ob  rem,  cum  tam  vitiosum 
esse  constet  adsentiri  quicquam  aut  falsum  aut  in- 
cognitum,  sustinenda  est  potius  omnis  adsensio,  ne 
praecipitet  si  temere  processerit ;  ita  enim  finitima 
sunt  falsa  veris  eaque  quae  percipi  non  possunt  eis 
quae  possunt^  (si  modo  ea  sunt  quaedam  :  iam  enim 
videbimus)  ut  tam  in  praecipitem  locum  non  debeat 
se  sapiens  committere.  Sin  autem  omnino  nihil  esse 
quod  percipi  possit  a  me  sumpsero  et  quod  tu  mihi 

*  eis  quae  possunt  inseruit  Reid. 
559. 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xx.— xxi. 

the  dignity  of  the  wise  man  than  error,  frivolity  or 
rashness.  What  then  shall  I  say  about  the  wise 
man's  firmness  ?  even  you,  Lucullus,  allow  that  he 
never  advances  a  mere  opinion.  And  since  you 
agree  with  this  (to  deal  with  you  out  of  turn  :  I  \vi\\ 
soon  return  to  a  regular  procedure),  consider  first 

67  the  vahdity  of  this  syllogism  :  XXI.  '  If  the  wise  man  Thedariit 
ever  assents  to  anyfhing,  he  will  sometimes  also  form  ^^'^^^^'^^- 
an  opinion  ;  but  he  never  ^vill  form  an  opinion  ; 
therefore  he  will  not  assent  to  anything.'  This 
syllogism  Arcesilas  used  to  approve,  for  he  used  to 
accept  both  the  major  premiss  and  the  minor  (Car- 
neades  used  sometimes  to  grant  as  minor  premiss  that 

the  wise  man  sometimes  assents,  so  that  it  followed 
that  he  also  holds  an  opinion,  which  you  will  not  allow, 
and  rightly,  as  I  think).  But  the  major  premiss,  that 
if  the  wise  man  did  assent  he  would  also  hold  an 
opinion,  both  the  Stoics  and  their  supporter  Antiochus 
declare  to  be  false,  arguing  that  the  wise  man  is 
able  to  distinguish  the  false  from  the  true  and  the 

68  imperceptible    from    the   perceptible.     But    in    our 

'  view,  in  the  first  place,  even  if  anything  could  be  , 
perceived,  nevertheless  the  mere  habit  of  assent- 
ing  appears  dangerous  and  shppery,  and  therefore 
since  it  is  agreed  that  to  give  assent  to  anything 
that  is  either  false  or  unknown  is  so  serious  a  fault, 
preferably  all  assent  is  to  be  withheld,  to  avoid  having 
a  serious  fall  if  one  goes  forward  rashly  ;  for  things 
false  he  so  close  to  things  true,  and  things  that  cannot 
be  perceived  to  things  that  can  (assuming  there  are 
such  things,  which  we  shall  see  soon),  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  \\Tise  man  not  to  trust  himself  to  such  a 
steep  slope.  But  if  on  the  contrary  I  assume  on  my 
own  authority  that  there  is  nothing  at  all  that  can  be 

553 


CICERO 

das  accepero,  sapientem  nihil  opinari,  effectuni  illud 
erit,  sapientem  adsensus  omnes  cohibiturum,  ut 
videndum  tibi  sit  idne  malis  an  aliquid  opinaturum 
esse  sapientem.  '  Neutrum,'  inquies,  '  illorum/ 
Nitamur  igitur  nihil  posse  percipi ;  etenim  de  eo 
omnis  est  controversia. 

69  XXII.  "  Sed  prius  pauca  cum  Antiocho,  qui  haec 
ipsa  quae  a  me  defenduntur  et  didicit  apud  Philonem 
tam  diu  ut  constaret  diutius  didicisse  neminem,  et 
scripsit  de  his  rebus  acutissime,  et  idem  haec  non 
acrius  accusavit  in  senectute  quam  antea  defensita- 
verat.  Quamvis  igitur  fuerit  acutus,  ut  fuit,  tamen 
inconstantia  levatur  auctoritas.  Quis  enim  iste  dies 
inluxerit  quaero  qui  illi  ostenderit  eam  quam  multos 
annos  esse  negitavisset  veri  et  falsi  notam.  Excogi- 
tavit  aliquid  ?  Eadem  dicit  quae  Stoici.  Paenituit 
illa  sensisse  ?  Cur  non  se  transtuht  ad  aHos,  et 
maxime  ad  Stoicos  ?  eorum  enim  erat  propria  ista  dis- 
sensio.  Quid  ?  eum  Mnesarchi  paenitebat  ?  quid  ? 
Dardani  ?  qui  erant  Athenis  tum  principes  Stoicorum. 
Numquam  a  Philone  discessit,  nisi  postea  quam  ipse 

70  coepit  qui  se  audirent  habere.  Unde  autem  subito 
vetus  Academia  revocata  est  ?     Nominis  dignitatem 

554 


ACADEMICA,  11.  (Lucullus),  xxi.— xxii. 

perceived,  and  accept  your  admission  that  the  wise 
man  forms  no  opinion,  this  will  prove  that  the  \nse 
man  %\ill  restrain  all  acts  of  assent,  so  that  you  will 
have  to  consider  whether  you  prefer  this  view  or  the 
view  that  the  wise  man  will  hold  some  opinion. 
*  Neither  of  those  views,'  you  will  say.  Let  us  there- 
fore  stress  the  point  that  nothing  can  be  perceived, 
for  it  is  on  that  that  all  the  controversy  turns. 

69  XXIL  "  But  first  let  us  have  a  few  words  with  Anti-  fj"^^^ 
ochus,  who  studied  under  Philo  the  very  doctrines  K^mintT. 
that  I  am  championing  for  such  a  long  time  that  it 

was  agreed  that  nobody  had  studied  them  longer, 
and  who  also  wrote  upon  these  subjects  with  the 
greatest  penetration,  and  who  nevertheless  in  his  old 
age  denounced  this  system,  not  more  keenly  than  he 
had  pre\iously  been  in  the  habit  of  defending  it. 
Although  therefore  he  may  have  been  penetrating, 
as  indeed  he  was,  nevertheless  lack  of  constancy  does 
diminish  the  weight  of  authorlty.  For  I  am  curious  to 
know  the  exact  date  of  the  day  whose  da\\Tiing  light 
revealed  to  him  that  mark  of  truth  and  falsehood 
which  he  had  for  many  years  been  in  the  habit  of 
denying.  Did  he  think  out  something  original  ?  His 
pronouncements  are  the  same  as  those  of  the  Stoics. 
Did  he  become  dissatisfied  with  his  former  opinions  ? 
Why  did  he  not  transfer  himself  to  another  school, 
and  most  of  all  why  not  to  the  Stoics  ?  for  that  dis- 
agreement  with  Philo  was  the  special  tenet  of  the 
Stoic  school.  What,  was  he  dissatisfied  with  Mnes- 
archus  ?  or  with  Dardanus  ?  they  were  the  leaders 
of  the  Stoics  at  Athens  at  the  time.  He  never  quitted 
Philo,  except  after  he  began  to  have  an  audience  of 

70  his  own.     I3ut  why  this  sudden  revival  of  the  Old 
Academy  ?     It  is  thought  that  he  wanted  to  retain 

555 


CICERO 

videtur,  cum  a  re  ipsa  descisceret,  retinere  voluisse— 
quod  erant  qui  illum  gloriae  causa  facere  dicerent, 
sperare  etiam  ut  ii  qui  se  sequerentur  Antiochii 
vocarentur.  Mihi  autem  magis  videtur  non  potuisse 
sustinere  concursum  omnium  philosophorum  (etenim 
de  ceteris  sunt  inter  illos  non  nulla  communia,  haec 
Academicorum  est  una  sententia  quam  reliquorum 
philosophorum  nemo  probet)  ;  itaque  cessit,  et,  ut 
ii  qui  sub  Novis  solem  non  ferunt,  item  ille  cum  ae- 
stuaret  veterum  ut  Maenianorum  sic  Academicorum 
71  umbram  secutus  est.  Quoque  solebat  uti  argumento 
tum  cum  ei  placebat  nihil  possepercipi,cumquaereret, 
Dionysius  ille  Heracleotes  utrum  comprehendisset 
certa  illa  nota  qua  adsentiri  dicitis  oportere — illudne 
quod  multos  annos  tenuisset  Zenonique  magistro 
credidisset,  honestum  quod  esset  id  bonum  solum 
esse,  an  quod  postea  defensitavisset,  honesti  inane 
nomen  esse,  voluptatem  esse  summum  bonum  ? — qui 
ex  ilHus  commutata  sententia  docere  vellet  nihil  ita 
signari  in  animis  nostris  a  vero  posse  quod  non  eodem 
modo  posset  a  falso,  is  curavit  quod  argumentum  ex 
Dionysio  ipse  sumpsisset  ex  eo  ceteri  sumerent.  Sed 
cum  hoc  aho  loco  plura,  nunc  ad  ea  quae  a  te,  Luculle, 
dicta  sunt. 

*  Novae  Tabernae,  a  row  of  silversmiths'  and  money- 
changers'  booths  skirting  the  Forum. 

*  Timber  balconies  added  to  shops  round  the  Forum,  to 
accommodate  spectators  at  the  games.  Maenius  was  consul 
338  B.c. 

*  Antiochus  had  refuted  the  doctrine  that  truth  can  be 
discerned  because  it  commands  the  instinctive  assent  of  the 
mind  by  pointing  out  that  a  prominent  exponent  of  this 
doctrine  had  at  different  times  assented  to  two  contradictory 
opinions.  Yet  he  himself  later  on  underwent  an  equally 
violent  change  of  opinion. 

556 


ACADEMICA,  11.  (Lucullus),  xxii. 

the  dignity  of  the  name  in  spite  of  abandoning  the 
reahty — for  in  fact  some  persons  did  aver  that  his 
motive  was  ostentation,  and  even  that  he  hoped  that 
his  follo\\ing  would  be  styled  the  School  of  Antiochus. 
But  I  am  more  inclined  to  think  that  he  was  unable 
to  withstand  the  united  attack  of  all  the  philosophers 
(for  although  they  have  certain  things  in  common  on 
all  other  subjects,  this  is  the  one  doctrine  of  the 
Academics  that  no  one  of  the  other  schools  approves)  ; 
and  accordingly  he  gave  way,  and,  just  like  people 
who  cannot  bear  the  sun  under  the  New  Row,"  took 
refuge  from  the  heat  in  tlie  shade  of  the  Old  Academy, 
71  as  they  do  in  the  shadow  of  the  Balconies.^  And  as 
to  the  argument  that  he  was  in  the  habit  of  employing 
at  the  period  when  he  held  that  nothing  could  be 
perceived,  which  consisted  in  asking  which  of  his  two 
doctrines  had  the  famous  Dionysius  of  Heraclea 
grasped  by  means  of  that  unmistakable  mark  which 
according  to  your  school  ought  to  be  the  foundation 
of  assent — the  doctrine  that  he  had  held  for  many 
years  and  had  accepted  on  the  authority  of  his  master 
Zeno,  that  only  the  morally  honourable  is  good,  or 
the  doctrine  that  he  had  made  a  practice  of  defending 
afterwards,  that  morality  is  an  empty  name,  and  that 
the  supreme  good  is  pleasure  ? — in  spite  of  Antiochus's 
attempt  to  prove  from  Dionysius's  change  of  opinion 
that  no  impression  can  be  printed  on  our  minds  by  a 
true  presentation  of  a  character  that  cannot  also  be 
caused  by  a  false  one,  he  yet  ensured  that  the 
argument  which  he  himself  had  drawn  from  Dionysius 
should  be  drawn  by  everybody  else  from  himself." 
But  with  him  I  will  deal  more  at  length  else- 
where ;  I  turn  now,  Lucullus,  to  what  was  said  by 
you. 

557 


CICERO 

72  XXIII.  **  Et  primum  quod  initio  dixisti  videamus 
quale  sit,  similiter  a  nobis  de  antiquis  philosophis 
commemorari  atque  seditiosi  solerent  claros  viros  sed 
tamen  populares  aUquos  nominare.  IUi  cum  res 
non^  bonas  tractent,  similes  bonorum  videri  volunt ; 
nos  autem  ea  dicimus  nobis  videri  quae  vosmet  ipsi 
nobihssimis  philosophis  placuisse  conceditis.  Anax- 
agoras  nivem  nigram  dixit  esse  :  ferres  me  si  ego 
idem  dicerem  ?  tu  ne  si  dubitarem  quidem.  At  quis 
est  hic  ?  num  sophistes  (sic  enim  appellabantur  ii  qui 
ostentationis  aut  quaestus  causa  philosophabantur)  ? 

73  Maxima  fuit  et  gravitatis  et  ingenii  gloria.  Quid 
loquar  de  Democrito  ?  Quem  cum  eo  conferre  possu- 
mus  non  modo  ingenii  magnitudine  sed  etiam  animi, 
qui  ita  sit  ausus  ordiri,  '  Haec  loquor  de  universis  '  ? 
nihil  excipit  de  quo  non  profiteatur,  quid  enim  esse 
potest  extra  universa  ?  Quis  hunc  philosophum 
non  anteponit  Cleanthi  Chrysippo  rehquis  inferioris 
aetatis,  qui  mihi  cum  illo  collati  quintae  classis 
videntur  ?  Atque  is  non  hoc  dicit  quod  nos,  qui  veri 
esse  ahquid  non  negamus,  percipi  posse  negamus  ; 
ille  verum  plane  negat  esse ;  sensusque  idem^  non 
obscuros   dicit  sed  tenebricosos — sic  enim   appellat 

^  non  inseruit  Ascensius. 
2  Reid  :  sensus  quidem  codd. 

"  §  13. 

^  Apparently  he  argued  that  black  was  the  real  colour 
of  snow  because  snow  is  water  and  water  of  very  great  depth 
is  very  dark  in  colour. 

'^  Sextus,  Adversus  MatJiematicos  vii.  ^65  A-qfMdKpiTos  6  ry 
Aibs  (ji'j)v^  TrapeLKa^o/Jievos  Kai  Xeywv  "  Ta8e  irepl  twv  ^v/xTrdvTwv.''^ 

<*  This  proverbial  expression,  derived  from  the  classifica- 
tion  of  the  population  ascribed  to  King  Servius  Tullius, 
558 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxiii, 

72  XXIII.  "  And  first  let  us  see  what  we  are  to  make  (2)  Repiy  to 
ot  your  remark  at  the  begimiing,^  that  our  way  of  first 
recaUing  ancient  philosopliers  was  hke  the  sedition-  ^[S^J.'- ' 
mongers'  habit  of  putting  forward  the  names  of  per-  sophera  are 
sons  who  are  men  of  distinction  but  yet  of  popular  scepticaL 
leanings.    Those  people  although  they  have  unworthy 
designs  in  hand  desire  to  appear  like  men  of  worth  ; 

and  we  in  our  turn  declare  that  the  views  we  hold 
are  ones  that  you  yourselves  admit  to  have  been 
approved  by  the  noblest  of  philosophers.  Anaxagoras 
said  ^  that  snow  is  black  :  would  you  endure  me  if 
I  said  the  same  ?  Not  you,  not  even  if  I  expressed 
myself  as  doubtful.  But  who  is  this  Anaxagoras  ? 
surely  not  a  sophist  (for  that  is  the  name  that  used 
to  be  given  to  people  \vho  pursued  philosophy  for 
the  sake  of  display  or  profit)  ?    Why,  he  was  a  man 

73  of  the  highest  renown  for  dignity  and  intellect.  Why 
should  I  talk  about  Democritus  ?  Whom  can  we  com- 
pare  for  not  only  greatness  of  intellect  but  also  great- 
aess  of  soul,  with  one  who  dared  to  begin,  '  These 
are  my  utterances  about  the  universe  '  ^  ? — he  excepts 
nothing  as  not  covered  by  his  pronouncement,  for 
what  can  be  outside  the  universe  ?  Who  does  not 
place  this  philosopher  before  Cleanthes  or  Chrysippus 
or  the  rest  of  the  later  period,  who  compared  with 
him  seem  to  me  to  belong  to  the  fifth  class  ^  ?  And 
he  does  not  mean  what  we  mean,  who  do  not  deny 
that  some  truth  exists  but  deny  that  it  can  be  per- 
ceived  ;  he  flatly  denies  that  truth  exists  at  all ;  and 
at  the  same  time  says  that  the  senses  are  (not  dim 
but)  '  fuU  of  darkness  '  * — for  that  is  the  term  he  uses 

occurs  here  only.  Horace,  Sat.  i.  11.  47,  has  *  in  classe 
secunda  '  of  '  second-class  '  merchandise. 

559 


CICERO 

eos.  Is  qui  hiinc  maxime  est  admiratus,  Chius  Metro 
dorus,  initio  libri  qui  est  de  natura,  '  Nego  '  inquit 
*  scire  nos  sciamusne  ahquid  an  nihil  sciamus,  ne  id 
ipsum   quidem,   nescire   (aut   scire),   scire   nos,   nec 

74  omnino  sitne  ahquid  an  nihil  sit.'  Furere  tibi 
Empedocles  videtur,  at  mihi  dignissimum  rebus  iis 
de  quibus  loquitur  sonum  fundere  ;  num  ergo  is 
excaecat  nos  aut  orbat  sensibus  si  parum  magnam 
vim  censet  in  iis  esse  ad  ea  quae  sub  eos  subiecta  sunt 
iudicanda  ?  Parmenides,  Xenophanes,  minus  bonis 
quamquam  versibus  sed  tamen  ilH^  versibus,  increpant 
eorum  adrogantiam  quasi  irati,  qui  cum  sciri  nihil 
possit  audeant  se  scire  dicere.  Et  ab  eis  aiebas  re- 
movendum  Socraten  et  Platonem.  Cur  ?  an  de  ulhs 
certius  possum  dicere  ?  vixisse  cum  iis  equidem 
\ideor  :  ita  multi  sermones  perscripti  sunt  e  quibus 
dubitari  non  possit  quin  Socrati  nihil  sit  visum  sciri 
posse  ;  excepit  unum  tantum,  scire  se  nihil  se  scire, 
nihil  amphus.  Quid  dicam  de  Platone  ?  qui  certe 
tam  multis  hbris  haec  persecutus  non  esset  nisi  proba- 
visset,  ironiam  enim  alterius,  perpetuam  praesertim, 

75  nuha  fuit  ratio  persequi.  XXIV.  Videorne  tibi  non 
ut  Saturninus  nominare  modo  inlustres  homines,  sed 
etiam  imitari  numquam  nisi  clarum,  nisi  nobilem  ? 
Atqui  habebam  molestos   vobis,  sed  minutos,  Stil- 

^  iWis,  nonnulli  codd. 
~  «  See  §  14.  "  Ibid. 

5G0 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxiii. — xxiv. 

tbr  them.  His  greatest  admirer,  the  Chian  Metro- 
dorus,  at  the  beginning  of  his  volume  0?i  Nature  says  : 
I  deny  that  we  know  whether  we  know  something 
or  know  nothing,  and  even  that  we  know  the  mere 
fact  that  we  do  not  know  (or  do  know),  or  know  at 

74  all  whether  something  exists  or  nothing  exists.'  You 
think  that  Empedocles  raves,^  but  I  think  that  he 
sends  forth  an  utterance  most  suited  to  the  dignity 
of  the  subject  of  which  he  is  speaking  ;  surely  there- 
fore  he  is  not  making  us  bhnd  or  depriving  us  of  our 
senses  if  he  holds  the  opinion  that  they  do  not  possess 
sufficient  force  to  enable  them  to  judge  the  objects 
that  are  submitted  to  them  ?  Parmenides  and 
Xenophanes — in  less  good  verse  it  is  true  but  all 
the  same  it  is  verse — inveiofh  almost  anffrily  as^ainst 
the  arrogance  of  those  who  dare  to  say  that  they 
know,  seeing  that  nothing  can  be  known.  Also  you 
said  ^  that  Socrates  and  Plato  must  not  be  classed 
with  them.  Why  ?  can  I  speak  with  more  certain 
knowledge  about  any  persons  ?  I  seem  to  have 
actually  Uved  with  them,  so  many  dialogues  have 
been  put  in  writing  which  make  it  impossible  to  doiibt 
that  Socrates  held  that  nothing  can  be  known  ;  he 
made  only  one  exception,  no  more — he  said  that  he 
did  know  that  he  knew  nothing.  Why  should  I  speak 
about  Plato  ?  he  certainly  would  not  have  set  out 
these  doctrines  in  so  many  volumes  if  he  had  not 
accepted  them,  for  otherwise  there  was  no  sense  in 
setting  out  the  irony  of  the  other  master,  especially 

75  as  it  was  unending.  XXIV.  Do  you  agree  that  I  do 
not  merely  cite  the  names  of  persons  of  renown,  as 
Saturninus  did,  but  invariably  take  some  famous  and 
di-tinguished  thinker  as  my  model  ?  Yet  I  had  avail- 
able  philosophers  who  give  trouble  to  your  school, 


CICERO 

ponem  Diodorum  Alexinum,  quorum  sunt  contorta 
et  aculeata  quaedam  sophismata  (sic  enim  appellantur 
fallaces  conclusiunculae)  ;  sed  quid  eos  colligam  cum 
habeam  Chrysippum,  qui  fulcire  putatur  porticum 
Stoicorum  ?  Quam  multa  ille  contra  sensus,  quam 
multa  contra  omnia  quae  in  consuetudine  probantur  ! 
At  dissolvit  idem.  Mihi  quidem  non  videtur  ;  sed 
dissolverit  sane  :  certe  tam  multa  non  collegisset 
quae  nos  fallerent  probabiHtate  magna  nisi  videret 

76  iis  resisti  non  facile  posse.  Quid  Cyrenaici  tibi^ 
videntur,  minime  contempti  philosophi  ?  qui  negant 
esse  quicquam  quod  percipi  possit  extrinsecus  :  ea  se 
sola  percipere  quae  tactu  intumo  sentiant,  ut  dolorem, 
ut  voluptatem,  neque  se  quo  quid  colore  aut  quo  sono 
sit  scire  sed  tantum  sentire  adfici  se  quodam  modo. 

"  Satis  multa  de  auctoribus — quamquam  ex  me 
quaesieras  nonne  putarem  post  illos  veteres  tot 
saecuhs  inveniri  verum  potuisse  tot  ingeniis  tantis^ 
studiis  quaerentibus.  Quid  inventum  sit  paulo  post 
videro,  te  ipso  quidem  iudice.  Arcesilan  vero  non 
obtrectandi  causa  cum  Zenone  pugnavisse,  sed  verum 

77  invenire  voluisse  sic  intehegitur.  Nemo  umquam  su- 
periorum  non  modo  expresserat  sed  ne  dixerat  quidem 
^  tibi  inseruit  Durand.  ^  tantis  ?  Reid  :   tantisque  codd, 

"  The  Stoa  Poikile  at  Athens,  the  meeting-place  of  the 
school,  which  took  its  name  from  it. 

*  In  §  16. 
562 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxiv. 

calthoiigh  they  are  petty  in  their  method,  Stilpo, 
Diodorus,  Alexinus,  the  authors  of  certain  tortuous 
and  pungent  sophismata  (as  the  term  is  for  Uttle  syllo- 
gistic  traps)  ;  but  why  should  I  bring  in  them,  when 
I  have  Chrysippus,  supposed  to  be  a  buttress  of  the 
Stoics'  Colonnade  ^*  ?  What  a  number  of  arguments 
he  produced  against  the  senses,  and  against  every- 
thing  that  is  approved  in  common  expcrience  !  But 
he  also  refuted  those  arguments,  you  will  say.  For 
my  own  part  I  don't  think  that  he  did  ;  but  suppose 
he  did  refute  them,  yet  undoubtedly  he  would  not 
have  collected  so  many  arguments  to  take  us  in  with 
their  great  probabihty  if  he  had  not  been  aware  that 

76  they  could  not  easily  be  wlthstood.  What  do  you 
think  of  the  Cyrenaics,  by  no  means  despicable 
philosophers  ?  they  maintain  that  nothing  external 
to  themselves  is  perceptible,  and  that  the  only  things 
that  they  do  perceive  are  the  sensations  due  to  in- 
ternal  contact,  for  example  pain  and  pleasure,  and 
that  they  do  not  know  that  a  thing  has  a  particular 
colour  or  sound  but  only  feel  that  they  are  themselves 
affected  in  a  certain  manner. 

"  Enough  about  authority — although  you  had  put  (3)Scepti- 
the  question  ^  to  me  whether  I  did  not  think  that  go™  ^"5"°'^' 
with  so  many  able  minds  carrying  on  the  search  with  uncertainty 
such  zealous  energy,  after  so  many  ages  since  the  old  tfon!'^^^^ 
philosophers  mentioned,  the    truth    might   possibly 
have  been  discovered.     What  actually  has  been  dis- 
covered  permit  me  to  consider  a  little  later,  with  you 
yourself  indeed  as  umpire.     But  that  Arcesilas  did 
not  do  battle  with  Zeno  merely  for  the  sake  of  criticiz- 
ing  him,  but  really  wished  to  discover  the  truth,  is 

77  gathered  from  what  foUows.  That  it  is  possible  for 
a  human  being  to  hold  no  opinions,  and  not  only 

563 


CICERO 

posse  hominem  nihil  opinari,  nec  solum  posse  sed 
ita  necesse  esse  sapienti ;  visa  est  Arcesilae  cum  vera 
sententia  tum  honesta  et  digna  sapiente.  Quaesivit 
de  Zenone  fortasse  quid  futurum  esset  si  nec  percipere 
quicquam  posset  sapiens  nec  opinari  sapientis  esset. 
Ille,  credo,  nihil  opinaturum  quoniam  esset  quod 
percipi  pcsset.  Quid  ergo  id  esset  ?  Visum,  credo. 
Quale  igitur  visum  ?  Tum  illum  ita  definisse,  ex  eo 
quod  esset,  sicut  esset,  impressum  et  signatum  et 
effictum.  Post  requisitum,  etiamne  si  eiusdem  modi 
esset  visum  verum  quale  vel  falsum.  Hic  Zenonem 
vidisse  acute  nullum  esse  visum  quod  percipi  posset, 
si  id  tale  esset  ab  eo  quod  est  ut  eiusdem  modi  ab  eo 
quod  non  est  posset  esse.  Recte  consensit  Arcesilas 
ad  definitionem  additum,  neque  enim  falsum  percipi 
posse  neque  verum  si  esset  tale  quale  vel  falsum  ; 
incubuit  autem  in  eas  disputationes  ut  doceret  nullum 
tale  esse  visum  a  vero  ut  non  eiusdem  modi  etiam  a 
78  falso  possit  esse.  Haec  est  una  contentio  quae  adhuc 
permanserit.     Nam  illud,  nulU  rei  adsensumm  esse 

564 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxiv. 

tliat  it  is  possible  but  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  wise 
man,  had  not  only  never  been  distinctly  formulated 
but  had  never  even  been  stated  by  any  of  his  pre- 
decessors  ;  but  Arcesilas  deemed  this  view  both  true 
and  also  honourable  and  worthy  of  a  wise  man.  We 
may  suppose  him  putting  the  question  to  Zeno,  what 
Mould  happen  if  the  Mise  man  was  unable  to  perceive 
anything  and  if  also  it  was  the  mark  of  the  wise  man 
not  to  form  an  opinion.  Zeno  no  doubt  replied  that 
the  wise  man's  reason  for  abstaining  from  forming 
an  opinion  would  be  that  there  was  something  that 
could  be  perceived.  What  then  was  this  ?  asked 
Arcesilas.  A  presentation,  was  doubtless  the  answer. 
Then  what  sort  of  a  presentation  ?  Hereupon  no 
doubt  Zeno  defined  it  as  follows,  a  presentation  im- 
pressed  and  sealed  and  moulded  from  a  real  object, 
in  conformity  with  its  reahty.  There  followed  the 
further  question,  did  this  hold  good  even  if  a  true 
presentation  was  of  exactly  the  same  form  as  a  false 
one  ?  At  this  I  imagine  Zeno  was  sharp  enough  to 
see  that  if  a  presentation  proceeding  from  a  real 
thing  was  of  such  a  nature  that  one  proceeding  from 
a  non-existent  thing  could  be  of  the  same  form,  there 
was  no  presentation  that  could  be  perceived.  Ar- 
cesilas  agreed  that  this  addition  to  the  definition  was 
correct,  for  it  was  impossible  to  perceive  either  a  false 
presentation  or  a  true  one  if  a  true  one  had  such  a 
character  as  even  a  false  onc  might  have  ;  but  he 
pressed  the  points  at  issue  further  in  order  to  show 
that  no  presentation  proceeding  from  a  true  object 
is  such  that  a  presentation  proceeding  from  a  false 
78  one  might  not  also  be  of  the  same  form.  This  is  ihe 
one  argument  that  has  hekl  the  field  down  to  the 
present  day.     For  the  point  that  the  wise  man  will 

565 


CICERO 

sapientem,  nihil  ad  hanc  controversiam  pertinebat ; 
licebat  enim  nihil  percipere  et  tamen  opinari — quod 
a  Carneade  dicitur  probatum,  equidem  Clitomacho 
plus  quam  Philoni  aut  Metrodoro  credens  hoc  magis 
ab  eo  disputatum  quam  probatum  puto.  Sed  id  omit- 
tamus.  Illud  certe  opinatione  et  perceptione  sublata 
sequitur,  omnium  adsensionum  retentio,  ut,  si  osten- 
dero  nihil  posse  percipi,  tu  concedas  numquam  ad- 
sensurum  esse.^ 

79  XXV.  "  Quid  ergo  est  quod  percipi  possit,  si  ne 
sensus  quidem  vera  nuntiant  ?  Quos  tu,  LucuUe, 
communi  loco  defendis  ;  quod  ne  ita^  facere  posses, 
idcirco  heri  non  necessario  loco  contra  sensus  tam 
multa  dixeram.  Tu  autem  te  negas  infracto  remo 
neque  columbae  collo  commoveri.  Primum  cur  ? 
nam  et  in  remo  sentio  non  esse  id  quod  videatur,  et 
in  columba  pluris  \ideri  colores  nec  esse  plus  uno. 
Deinde  nihilne  praeterea  diximus  ?  Maneant^  illa 
omnia,  iacet*  ista  causa.  Veraces  suos  esse  sensus 
dicit.  Igitur  semper  auctorem  habes,  et  eum  qui 
magno  suo  periculo  causam  agat !  eo  enim  rem 
demittit  Epicurus,  si  unus  sensus  semel  in  vita  men- 

80  titus  sit,  nulU  umquam  esse  credendum.  Hoc  est 
verum  esse,  confidere  suis  testibus  et  in  pravitate^ 
insistere !  Itaque  Timagoras  Epicureus  negat  sibi  um- 
quam,  cum  oculum  torsisset,  duas  ex  lucerna  flam- 

^  esse  :  sit  necesse  ?  Reid. 
2  ita  Miiller  :  id  codd. 
^  manent  Reid. 
*  iacet  Reid  :  lacerat,  iaceat  codd. 
'  in  pravitate  Reid  :  inportata,  inportane  codd, 

"  §§  19  fF.  ^  See  §  19. 

*  The  third  person,  used  of  the  person  addressed,  is  rather 
contemptuous. 
566 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxiv.— xxv. 

not  assent  to  anything  had  no  essential  bearing  on 
this  dispute  ;  for  he  might  perceive  nothing  and  yet 
form  an  opinion — a  view  which  is  said  to  have  been 
accepted  by  Carneades  ;  although  for  my  own  part, 
trusting  Chtomachus  more  than  Philo  or  Sletrodorus, 
I  beheve  that  Carneades  did  not  so  much  accept  this 
view  as  advance  it  in  argument.  But  let  us  drop 
that  point.  If  the  acts  of  opining  and  perceiving 
are  abohshed,  it  undoubtedly  follows  that  all  acts 
of  assent  must  be  withheld,  so  that  if  I  succeed  in 
proving  that  nothing  can  be  perceived,  you  must 
admit  that  the  wise  man  will  never  assent. 

79  XXV.  "  What  is  there  then  that  can  be  perceived,  W  Even^ 
if  not  even  the  senses  report  the  truth  ?  You  defend  are  iin^^^ 
them,  Lucullus,  by  a  stock  argument "  ;  but  it  was  -ertain: 
to  prevent  your  being  able  to  do  it  in  that  way  that  I 
had  gone  out  of  my  way  yesterday  to  say  so  much 
against  the  senses.  Yet  you  assert  ^  that  the  broken 
oar  and  the  pigeon's  neck  don't  upset  you.  In  the 
first  place  why  ?  for  in  the  instance  of  the  oar  I  per- 
ceive  that  what  is  seen  is  not  real,  and  in  that  of  the 
pigeon  that  several  colours  are  seen  and  really  there 
are  not  more  than  one.  In  the  next  place,  surely  we 
said  much  beside  that !  Suppose  all  our  arguments 
stand,  the  case  of  you  people  collapses.  His  own 
senses,  quoth  he,''  are  truthful !  If  so,  you  always 
have  an  authority,  and  one  to  risk  his  all  in  defence 
of  the  cause !  for  Epicurus  brings  the  issue  to  this 
point,  that  if  one  sense  has  told  a  he  once  in  a  man's 

10  life,  no  sense  must  ever  be  beheved.     This  is  true  Exampiea 
candour — to  trust  in  one's  own  witnesses  and  persist  sense  of^ 
in  perversity  !     Accordingly,  Timagoras  the  Epicu-  sight: 
rean  denies  that  he  has  ever  really  seen  two  httle 
flames  coming  from  the  lamp  when  he  has  screwed  up 

567 


CICERO 

mulas  esse  visas ;  opinionis  enim  esse  mendacium,  non 
oculorum.  Quasi  quaeratur  quid  sit,  non  quid  videa- 
tur  !  Sit  hic  quidem  maiorum  similis  ;  tu  vero,  qui 
visa  sensibus  alia  vera  dicas  esse,  alia  falsa,  qui  ea 
distinguis  ?  Et  desine,^  quaeso,  communibus  locis  ; 
domi  nobis  ista  nascuntur  !  Si,  inquis,  deus  te 
interroget  sanis  modo  et  integris  sensibus  num 
amplius  quid  desideres,  quid  respondeas  ?  Utinam 
quidem  roget  !  audiret-  quam  nobiscum  male  age- 
ret  !  Ut  enim  vera  videamus,  quam  longe  videmus  ? 
Ego  Catuli  Cumanum  ex  hoc  loco  cerno  et  e  regione' 
video,  Pompeianum  non  cerno,  neque  quicquam  inter- 
iectum  est  quod  obstet,  sed  intendi  acies  longius 
non  potest.  O  praeclarum  prospectum  !  Puteolos 
videmus,  at  famiharem  nostrum  C.  Avianium 
fortasse  in  porticu  Neptuni  ambulantem  non  vide- 
81  mus  ;  at  ille  nescio  qui  qui  in  schohs  nominari  solet 
mille  et  octingenta  stadia  quod  abesset  \idebat : 
quaedam  volucres  longius.  Responderem  igitur 
audacter  isti  vestro  deo  me  plane  his  ocuhs  non  esse 
contentum.  Dicet  me  acrius  videre  quam  illos  pisces 
fortasse  qui  neque  \identur  a  nobis  et  nunc  quidem 
sub  ocuh's  sunt  neque  ipsi  nos  suspicere  possunt  ; 
ergo  ut  illis  aqua,  sic  nobis  aer  crassus  offunditur. 

*  Sed  desine  edd.  (Desine  vel  Desiste  Reid), 

2  Davies  :  audires,  audies  codd. 

'  et  e  regione  Reid  :  regionem  codd. 

"  Presumably  a  pubHc  resort  at  Puteoli,  the  modern 
Pozzuoli. 

"  Pliny,  Nat.  IJist.  vii.  85,  repeats  this  astounding  story 
on  Cicero's  authority,  although  he  gives  the  distance  as 
135,000  paces ;  and  he  quotes  from  \'arro  that  the  telescopic 
person's  name  was  Strabo,  and  that  from  Libybaeum  in 
Sicily  he  saw  the  Punic  fleet  sail  from  Carthage. 

568 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxv. 

an  eye,  since  it  is  a  lie  of  the  opinion,  not  of  the  eyes. 
As  though  the  question  were  \vhat  exists,  not  what 
seems  to  exist !  However,  Timagoras  may  be  allowed 
to  be  true  to  his  intellectual  ancestry  ;  but  as  for 
you.  who  say  that  some  sense-presentations  are  true 
and  some  false,  how  do  you  distinguish  them  apart  ? 
And  do  pray  desist  from  mere  stock  arguments  : 
those  are  products  we  have  a  home  supply  of !  If  a 
god,  you  say,  were  to  inquire  of  you  whether,  given 
healthy  and  sound  senses,  you  want  anything  more, 
what  would  you  reply  ?  Indeed  I  -wish  he  would 
make  the  inquiry !  he  would  be  told  how  badly  he 
was  deahng  M-ith  us  !  For  even  granting  that  our 
sight  is  accurate,  how  ^^ide  is  its  range  ?  I  can  make 
out  Catulus's  place  at  Cumae  from  where  we  are, 
and  can  see  it  straight  in  front  of  me,  but  I  can't 
make  out  his  villa  at  Pompei,  although  there  is 
nothing  in  between  to  block  the  \-iew,  but  my  sight 
is  not  able  to  carry  any  further.  O  what  a  glorious 
view  !  We  can  see  Puteoh,  but  we  can't  see  our 
friend  Gaius  x\vianius,  who  is  very  hkely  taking  a 
stroll  in  the  Colonnade  of  Neptune  ** ;  whereas  that 
somebody  or  other  who  is  regularly  quoted  in  lectures 
used  to  see  an  object  two  hundred  and  twenty-five 
miles  oflT,^  and  certain  birds  can  see  further.  There- 
fore  I  should  boldly  answer  that  deity  of  your  friends 
that  I  am  by  no  means  satisfied  with  the  eyes  that  I 
have  got.  He  will  say  that  my  sight  is  keener  than 
that  of  the  fishes  down  there,  very  hkely,  which  we 
cannot  see  though  they  are  under  our  eyes  at  the 
very  moment,  and  which  also  themselves  cannot  see 
us  above  them  ;  it  follows  that  we  are  shut  in  by  an 
opaque  envelope  of  air  as  they  are  by  one  of  water. 

569 


CICERO 

At  amplius  non  desideramus^ !  Quid  ?  talpam  num 
desiderare  lumen  putas  ?  Neque  tam  quererer  cum 
deo  quod  parum  longe  quam  quod  falsum  viderem. 
Videsne  navem  illam  ?  stare  nobis  videtur,  at  iis  qui 
in  navi  sunt  moveri  haec  villa.  Quaere  rationem  cur 
ita  videatur  ;  quam  ut  maxime  inveneris,  quod  haud 
scio  an  non  possis,  non  tu  verum  te^  testem  habere, 
sed  eum  non  sine  causa  falsum  testimonium  dicere 

82  ostenderis.  XXVI.  Quid  ego  de  nave  ?  vidi  enim  a 
te  remum  contemni  ;  maiora  fortasse  quaeris.  Quid 
potest  esse  sole  maius,  quem  mathematici  amplius 
duodeviginti  partibus  confirmant  maiorem  esse 
quam  terram  ?  Quantulus  nobis  videtur !  mihi 
quidem  quasi  pedahs.  Epicurus  autem  posse  putat 
etiam  minorem  esse  eum  quam  videatur,  sed  non 
multo  ;  ne  maiorem  quidem  multo  putat  esse,  vel 
tantum  esse  quantus  \ddeatur,  ut  ocuh  aut  nihil 
mentiantur  aut  non  multum.  Ubi  igitur  illud  est 
*  semel  '  ?  Sed  ab  hoc  credulo,  qui  numquam  sensus 
mentiri  putat,  discedamus,  qui  ne  nunc  quidem,  cum 
ille  sol,  qui  tanta  incitatione  fertur  ut  celeritas  eius 
quanta  sit  ne  cogitari  quidem  possit,  tamen  nobis 

83  stare  \ddeatur.  Sed  ut  minuam  controversiam, 
videte  quaeso  quam  in  parvo  hs  sit.  Quattuor  sunt 
capita  quae  concludant  nihil  esse  quod  nosci  percipi 
comprehendi  possit,  de  quo  haec  tota  quaestio  est : 
e   quibus   primum   est   esse   ahquod   visum   falsum, 

^  desiderant  Christ.  *  te  inseruit  Davies. 

•  §19. 

*  Latin  arithmetic  expressed  the  proportion  of  19  to  1 
by  sajang  that '  19  is  greater  than  1  by  18  parts.' 

«  See  §  79  Jin. 
570 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxv.— xxvi. 

But,  you  say,  we  don't  wish  for  more  !  What,  do  you 
think  a  mole  doesn't  wish  for  Hght  ?  And  I  should 
not  quarrel  with  the  deity  so  much  about  the  limited 
range  of  my  sight  as  about  its  inaccuracy.  Do  you 
see  yonder  ship  ?  To  us  she  appears  to  be  at  anchor, 
whereas  to  those  on  board  her  this  house  appears  in 
motion.  Seek  for  a  reason  for  this  appearance,  and 
however  much  you  succeed  in  finding  one — though  I 
doubt  if  you  can — you  will  not  have  made  out  that 
you  have  got  a  true  mtness  but  that  your  witness  is 

32  for  reasons  of  his  o\vn  giving  false  evidence.  XXVI. 
Why  do  I  talk  about  a  ship  ?  for  I  saw  "  that  you  think 
the  illustration  of  the  oar  contemptible  ;  perhaps  you 
want  bigger  examples.  What  can  be  bigger  than 
the  sun,  which  the  mathematicians  declare  to  be 
nineteen  times  the  size  of  the  earth  ^  ?  How  tiny  it 
looks  to  us  !  to  me  it  seems  about  a  foot  in  diameter. 
Epicurus  on  the  other  hand  thinks  that  it  may  possibly 
be  even  smaller  than  it  looks,  though  not  much  ;  he 
thinks  that  it  is  not  much  larger  either,  or  else 
exactly  the  size  that  it  appears  to  be,  so  that  the 
eyes  either  do  not  lie  at  all  or  else  not  much.  What 
becomes  then  of  that  '  once  '  ^  of  which  we  spoke  ? 
But  let  us  quit  this  guUible  person,  who  thinks  that 
the  senses  never  he, — not  even  now%  when  the  sun  up 
there,  that  is  travelhng  with  such  rapidity  that  the 
magnitude  of  its  velocity  cannot  even  be  conceived, 

33  nevertheless  appears  to  us  to  be  standing  still.  But 
to  narrow  down  the  controversy,  pray  see  how  small 
a  point  it  is  on  which  the  issue  turns.  There  are  four 
heads  of  argument  intended  to  prove  that  there  is 
nothing  that  can  be  kno^vn,  perceived  or  compre- 
hended,  which  is  the  subject  of  all  this  debate  :  the 
first  of  these  arguments  is  that  there  is  such  a  thing 

571 


CICERO 

secundum  non  posse  id  percipi,  tertium  inter  quae  visa 
nihil  intersit  fieri  non  posse  ut  eorum  alia  percipi 
possint,  alia  non  possint,  quartum  nullum  esse  visum 
verum  a  sensu  profectum  cui  non  adpositum  sit  visum 
aliud  quod  ab  eo  nihil  intersit  quodque  percipi  non 
possit.  Horum  quattuor  capitum  secundum  et  ter- 
tium  omnes  concedunt ;  primum  Epicurus  non  dat, 
vos  quibuscum  res  est  id  quoque  conceditis  ;    omnis 

84  pugna  de  quarto  est.  Qui  igitur  P.  ServiHum 
Geminum  videbat,  si  Quintum  se  videre  putabat, 
incidebat  in  eius  modi  visum  quod  percipi  non  posset, 
quia  nulla  nota  verum  distinguebatur  a  falso  ;  qua 
distinctione  sublata  quam  haberet  in  C.  Cotta  qui 
bis  cum  Gemino  consul  fuit  agnoscendo  eius  modi 
notam  quae  falsa  esse  non  posset  ?  Negas  tantam 
simiUtudinem  in  rerum  natura  esse.  Pugnas  omnino, 
sed  cum  adversario  facili  ;  ne  sit  sane  :  videri  certe 
potest,  fallet  igitur  sensum,  et  si  una  fefellerit 
simihtudo,  dubia  omnia  reddiderit ;  sublato  enim 
iudicio  illo  quo  oportet  agnosci,  etiamsi  ipse  erit 
quem  videris  qui  tibi  videbitur,  tamen  non  ea  nota 
iudicabis,    qua   dicis    oportere,    ut   non    possit    esse 

85  eiusdem  modi  falsa.     Quando  igitur  potest  tibi  P. 

«  Identical  pictures  may  be  formed  in  the  mind  (1)  truly, 
when  one  of  the  senses  is  aflFected  by  an  external  object,  and 
(2)  falsely,  when  we  mistake  one  object  for  another,  or  when 
we  merely  imagine  we  see  an  object.  In  the  latter  case  the 
mental  picture  is  not '  perceived  '  in  the  technical  sense  here 
assumed.  Therefore  it  is  not '  perceived  '  in  the  former  case 
either.  *  See  §  56. 

572 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxvi. 

a*:  a  false  prescntation ;  the  second,  that  a  false  pre- 
scntation  cannot  he  perceivcd  :  the  third.  that  of  pre- 
sentations  bctwecn  -svhich  there  is  no  ditfcrence  it  is 
impossible  for  some  to  be  able  to  be  perceived  and 
others  not  ;  the  fourth,  that  there  is  no  true  pre- 
sentation  oris-inatinfj  from  sensation  with  which  there 
is  not  ranged  another  presentation  that  precisely 
corresponds  to  it  and  that  cannot  be  perceived."'  The 
second  and  third  of  these  four  arguments  are  admitted 
by  everybody  ;  the  first  is  not  granted  by  Epicurus, 
but  you  with  whom  we  are  dealing  admit  that  one 
84  too  ;  the  entire  battle  is  about  the  fourth.     If  there-  indis- 


tinsuishable 


fore  a  person  looking  at  Publius  ServiUus  Geminus  ^  resem- 
used  to  think  he  saw  Quintus,  he  was  encountering  biancea. 
a  presentation  of  a  sort  that  could  not  be  perceived, 
because  there  was  no  mark  to  distinguish  a  true  pre- 
sentation  from  a  false  one  ;  and  if  that  mode  of  dis- 
tinguishing  were  removed,  what  mark  would  he  have, 
of  such  a  sort  that  it  could  not  be  false,  to  help  him 
to  recognize  Gaius  Cotta,  who  M'as  twice  consul  with 
Geminus  ?  You  say  that  so  great  a  degree  of  resem- 
blance  does  not  exist  in  the  world.  You  show  fight, 
no  doubt,  but  you  have  an  easy-going  opponent  ;  let 
us  grant  by  all  means  that  it  does  not  exist,  but  un- 
doubtedly  it  can  appear  to  exist,  and  therefore  it  will 
cheat  the  sense,  and  if  a  single  case  of  resemblance 
has  done  that,  it  will  have  made  everything  doubtful  ; 
for  when  that  proper  canon  of  recognition  has  been 
removed,  even  if  the  man  himself  whom  you  see 
is  the  man  he  appears  to  you  to  be,  nevertheless 
you  ^nll  not  make  that  judgement,  as  you  say  it 
ought  to  be  made,  by  means  of  a  mark  of  such  a  sort 
that  a  false  hkeness  coukl  not  liave  the  same  char- 
85  acter.     Therefore  seeing  that  it  is  possible  for  Pubhus 

u  513 


CICERO 

Geminus  Quintus  videri,  quid  habes  explorati  cnr 
non  possit  tibi  Cotta  videri  qui  non  sit,  quoniam 
aliquid  videtur  esse  quod  non  est  ?  Omnia  dicis  sui 
generis  esse,  nihil  esse  idem  quod  sit  aliud.  Stoicum 
est  istuc  quidem  nec  admodum  credibile,  nullum  esse 
pilum  omnibus  rebus  talem  qualis  sit  pilus  alius, 
nullum  granum.  Haec  refelli  possunt,  sed  pugnare 
nolo  ;  ad  id  enim  quod  agitur  nihil  interest  omnibusne 
partibus  visa  res  nihil  difFerat  an  internosci  non 
possit  etiamsi  difFerat.  Sed  si  hominum  similitudo 
tanta  esse  non  potest,  ne  signorum  quidem  ?  Dic 
mihi,  Lysippus  eodem  aere,  eadem  temperatione, 
eodem  caelo  atque^  ceteris  omnibus  centum  Alex- 
andros  eiusdem  modi  facere  non  posset  ?  qua  igitur 
86  notione  discerneres  ?  Quid  si  in  eiusdem  modi  cera 
centum  sigilla  hoc  anulo  impressero,  ecquae  poterit 
in  agnoscendo  esse  distinctio  ?  an  tibi  erit  quae- 
rendus  anularius  aliqui,  quoniam  galhnarium  in- 
venisti  DeUacum  illum  qui  ova  cognosceret  ?  XXVII. 
Sed  adhibes  artem  advocatam  etiam  sensibus. 
Pictor  videt  quae  nos  non  videmus,  et  simul  inflavit 
tibicen  a  perito  carmen  agnoscitur.  Quid  ?  hoc 
nonne  videtur  contra  te  valere,  si  sine  magnis  arti- 
ficiis,  ad  quae  pauci  accedunt,  nostri  quidem  generis 
admodum,  nec  videre  nec  audire  possimus  ?  lara 
illa  praeclara,  quanto  artificio  esset  sensus  nostros 
^  atque  Reid  :  aqua  codd. 

'  See  §§  50,  54,  56. 

"  Lysippus  had  sole  permission  from  Alexander  to  make 
statues  of  him  ;   he  made  a  great  many. 

"  See  §  57.  «*  See  §  20.  •  §  30. 

574 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxvi.— xxvii. 

Geminus  Quintus  to  appear  to  you,  what  reason  have 
you  for  being  satisfied  that  a  person  who  is  not  Cotta 
cannot  appear  to  you  to  be  Cotta,  inasmuch  as  some- 
thing  that  is  not  real  appears  to  be  real  ?  You  say 
that  everything  is  in  a  class  of  its  own,'*  and  that 
nothing  is  the  same  as  what  some  other  thing  is. 
That  is,  it  is  true,  a  Stoic  argument,  and  it  is  not  a  very 
convincing  one — that  no  hair  or  grain  of  sand  is  in  all 
respects  the  same  as  another  hair  or  grain.  These 
assertions  can  be  refuted,  but  I  don't  want  to  fight  ; 
for  it  makes  no  diiference  to  the  point  at  issue  whether 
an  object  completely  Mithin  sight  does  not  differ  at  all 
from  another  or  cannot  be  distinguished  from  it  even 
if  it  does  differ.  But  if  so  great  a  resemblance  be- 
tween  human  beings  is  impossible,  is  it  also  impossible 
between  statues  ?  Tell  me,  could  not  Lysippus,^  by 
means  of  the  same  bronze,  the  same  blend  of  metals, 
the  same  graver  and  all  the  other  requisites,  make  a 
hundred  Alexanders  of  the  same  shape  ?  then  by 
what  mode  of  recognition  would  you  tell  them  apart  ? 
6  Weil,  if  I  imprint  a  hundred  seals  ^^ith  this  ring  on 
lumps  of  wax  of  the  same  sort,  y<i.\\  there  possibly  be 
any  mode  of  distinction  to  aid  in  recognizing  them  ? 
Or  \v\\\  you  have  to  seek  out  some  jeweller,  as  you 
found  that  poultry-keeper  ^  at  Delos  who  recognized 
eggs  ?  XX\TI.  But  you  call  in  the  aid  of  art  ^  to 
plead  in  defence  even  of  the  senses.  A  painter  sees 
things  that  we  do  not,  and  a  musical  expert  recog- 
nizes  a  tune  as  soon  as  a  flute-player  has  blown  a 
note.  Well,  does  not  this  seem  to  tell  against  you, 
if  without  great  artistic  acquirements,  to  which  few 
people,  of  our  race  indeed  very  few,  attain,  we  are 
unable  either  to  see  or  to  hear  ?  Again  those  were  re- 
markable  points  ^  about  the  high  artistic  skill  shown 

575 


CICERO 

mentemque  et  totam  constnictionem  hominis  fabri- 

87  cata  natura.  Cur  non  extimescam  opinandi  temeri 
tatem  ?  Etiamne  hoc  adfirmare  potes,  Luculle,  esse 
aliquam  vim,  cum  prudentia  et  consilio  scilicet,  quae 
finxerit  vel,  ut  tuo  verbo  utar,  quae  fabricata  sit 
hominem  ?  Qualis  ista  fabrica  est  ?  ubi  adhibita  ? 
quando  ?  cur  ?  quo  modo  ?  Tractantur  ista  in- 
geniose,  disputantur  etiam  eleganter ;  denique 
videantur  sane,  ne  adfirmentur  modo.  Sed  de 
physicis  mox  (et  quidem  ob  eam  causam  ne  tu,  qui 
id  me  facturum  paulo  ante  dixeris,  videare  mentitus) ; 
sed  ut  ad  ea  quae  clariora  sunt  veniam,  res  iam  uni- 
versas  profundam,  de  quibus  volumina  impleta  sunt 
non  a  nostris  solum  sed  etiam  a  Chrysippo  ;  de  quo 
queri  solent  Stoici,  dum  studiose  omnia  conquisierit 
contra  sensus  et  perspicuitatem  contraque  omnem 
consuetudinem  contraque  rationem,  ipsum  sibi  re- 
spondentem  inferiorem  fuisse,  itaque  ab  eo  armatum 

88  esse  Carneadem.  Ea  sunt  eius  modi  quae  a  te 
dihgentissime  tractata  sunt.  Dormientium  et  vinu- 
lentorum  et  furiosorum  visa  imbecilhora  esse  dicebas 
quam  vigilantium  siccorum  sanorum.  Quo  modo  ? 
Quia,  cum  experrectus  esset  Ennius,  non  diceret  se 
vidisse  Homerum  sed  visum  esse,  Alcmaeo  autem 

sed  mihi  ne  utiquam  cor  consentit  .  ,  . 

«  Seei.  29  n.  "  §  17.  <=  S  55. 

"  §§47-53.  •  See§51  n. 

576 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxvii. 

in  Nature's  fabrication  of  our  senses  and  mind  and 
17  the  whole  structure  of  a  human  being.  Why  should 
I  not  be  extremely  afraid  of  rashness  in  forming 
opinion  ?  Can  you  even  assert  this,  Lucullus,  that 
there  is  some  force,  united  I  suppose  with  providence  * 
and  design,  that  has  moulded  or,  to  use  your  word,^ 
fabricated  a  human  being  ?  What  sort  of  workman- 
ship  is  that  ?  where  was  it  applied  ?  Mhen  ?  why  ? 
how  ?  You  handle  these  matters  cleverly,  and  ex- 
pound  them  in  a  style  that  is  even  elegant  ;  well 
then,  let  us  grant  that  they  appear,  only  provided  that 
they  are  not  affirmed.  But  with  the  natural  philo- 
sophers  we  will  deal  soon  (and  that  with  the  object 
of  sa\*ing  you,  who  said  just  now  «^  that  I  should  go 
to  them,  from  appearing  to  have  told  a  falsehood)  ; 
whereas,  to  come  to  matters  less  obscure,  I  will  now 
pour  fortli  the  facts  of  the  universe,  about  Avhich 
volumes  have  been  filled  not  only  by  our  school  but 
also  by  Chrysippus  ;  of  whom  the  Stoics  are  in  the 
habit  of  complaining  that,  while  he  carefuUy  sought 
out  all  the  facts  that  told  against  the  senses  and  their 
clarity  and  against  the  whole  of  common  experience 
and  against  reason,  when  answering  himself  he  got 
the  worst  of  it,  and  thus  it  was  he  that  furnished 
8  weapons  to  Carneades.  My  points  are  of  the  sort  naiiucina- 
that  have  been  handled  very  industriously  by  you.'^  Sw*me 
Your  assertion  was  that  presentations  seen  by  people  theylasu 
asleep  and  tipsy  and  mad  are  feebler  than  those  of 
persons  awake  and  sober  and  sane.  How  ?  Because, 
you  said,  when  Ennius  ^  had  woken  up  he  did  not  say 
that  he  had  seen  Homer  but  that  he  had  seemed  to 
see  him.  wliile  his  Alcmaeon  says 

But  my  mind  agrees  in  ro  wise  .  .  • 

577 


CICERO 

Similia  de  vinulentis.  Quasi  quisquam  neget  et  qui 
experrectus  sit  eum  somniasse  se^  et  cuius  furor  con- 
sederit  putare  non  fuisse  ea  vera  quae  essent  sibi 
visa  in  furore  !  Sed  non  id  agitur  ;  tum  cum  vide- 
bantur  quo  modo  viderentur,  id  quaeritur.  Nisi  vero 
Eimium  non  putamus  ita  totimi  illud  audivisse 

o  pietas  animi . . ., 

si  modo  id  somniavit,  ut  si  vigilans  audiret ;  exper- 
rectus  enim  potuit  illa  visa  putare,  ut  erant,^  somnia, 
dormienti  vero  aeque  ac  vigilanti  probabantur.  Quid  ? 
Iliona  somno  illo 

mater,  te  appello  .  •  • 

nonne  ita  credidit^  fllium  locutum  ut  experrecta 
etiam  crederet  ?     Unde  enim  illa 

age  adsta,  mane,  audi ;   iteradum  eadem  ista  mihi — ? 

num  videtur  minorem  habere  visis  quam  vigilantes 
fidem  ? 
89  XXVIII.  "  Quidloquardeinsanis  ?  Qualistandem 
fuit  adfinis  tuus,  Catule,  Tuditanus  ?  quisquam 
sanissimus  tam  certa  putat  quae  videt  quam  is 
putabat  quae  videbantur  ?     Quid  ille  qui : 

video,  video  te.     vive,  Ulixes,  dum  licet? 

nonne  etiam  bis  exclamavit  se  videre  cum  omnino 

^  somniasse  se  Miiller  :  somnia  reri  Reid :  somniare  codd. 
2  erant  Mdv.  :  erant  et  codd. 
3  IlaJm  :  credit  codcJ. 

"  Presumably  part  of  the  dream  about  Homer,  §  51  n. 

"  Quoted  from  the  Iliona  (see  p.  662)  of  Pacuvius  (sce 
p.  393). 

«^  Apparently  this  comes  from  an  Ajax  Furens,  but  no 
Latin  tragedy  on  this  subject  is  recorded. 

578 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxvii. — xxviii. 

There  are  similar  passages  about  men  tipsy.  As  if 
anybody  would  deny  that  a  man  that  has  woken  up 
thinks  that  he  has  been  dreaming,  or  that  one  whose 
madness  has  subsided  thinks  that  the  things  that  he 
saw  during  his  madness  were  not  true  !  But  that  is 
not  the  point  at  issue  ;  what  we  are  asking  is  what 
these  things  looked  hke  at  the  time  when  they  were 
seen.  Unless  indeed  we  think  that,  if  Ennius  merely 
dreamt  that  passage 

O  piety  of  spirit  ..." 
he  did  not  hear  the  whole  of  it  in  the  same  way  as 
if  he  had  been  hstening  to  it  when  awake  ;  for  when 
he  had  woken  up  he  was  able  to  think  those  appear- 
ances  dreams,  as  they  were,  but  he  accepted  them 
as  real  while  he  was  asleep  just  as  much  as  he  woukl 
have  done  if  awake.  Again,  in  that  dream  of  IHona, 
Mother,  on  thee  I  call  .  .  .,'' 

did  she  not  so  firmly  believe  that  her  son  had  spoken, 
that  she  beheved  it  even  after  waking  up  ?  For  what 
is  the  cause  of  her  saying 

Come,  stand  by  me,  stay  and  hear  me ;   say  those  words 
to  me  again —  ? 

does  she  seem  to  have  less  faith  in  her  visual  presenta- 
tions  than  people  have  when  they  are  awake  ? 

XXVm.  "  What  shall  I  say  about  those  who  are 
out  of  their  mind  ?  What  pray  are  we  to  think  of 
your  relative  Tuditanus,  Catulus  ?  does  anybody 
perfectly  sane  think  that  the  objects  that  he  sees  are 
as  real  as  Tuditanus  thought  that  his  visions  were  ? 
What  was  the  condition  of  the  character  who  says 

I  see,  I  see  thee.    Live,  Ulysses,  whiist  thou  mayest — ?• 
did  he  not  actually  shout  out  twice  over  that  he  saw, 

579 


CICERO 

non  videret  ?  Quid  ?  apud  Euripidem  Hercules  cum 
ut  Eurysthei  filios  ita  suos  configebat  sagittis,  cum 
uxorem  interemebat,  cum  conabatur  etiam  patrem, 
non  perinde  movebatur  falsis  ut  veris  moveretur  ? 
Quid  ?  ipse  Alcmaeo  tuus,  qui  negat  '  cor  sibi  cum 
oculis  consentire,'  nonne  ibidem  incitato  furore 

unde  haec  flamma  oritur  ? 
et  illa  deinceps 

incedunt,  incedunt,^  adsunt,  me  expetunt. 
Quid  cum  virginis  fidem  implorat — 

fer  mi  auxilium,  pestem  abige  a  me,  flammiferam  hano 

vim  quae  me  excruciat ! 
caeruleo  incinctae  angui^  incedunt,  circumstant  cum  ar- 

dentibus  taedis —  ? 

num  dubitas  quin  sibi  haec  videre  videatur  ?  Item- 
que  cetera  : 

intendit  crinitus  Apollo 
arcum  auratum  laeva^  innixus, 
Diana  facem  iacit  a  luna^ — 

90  qui  magis  haec  crederet  si  essent  quam  credebat 
quia  videbantur  ?  apparebat*  enim  iam  *  cor  cum 
oculis  consentire.'  Omnia  autem  haec  proferuntur  ut 
illud  efficiatur  quo  certius  nihil  potest  esse,  inter  visa 

^  sic  edd. :  incede  incede  codd. 
2  angui  Columna  :  igni  codd, 

s  apud  Reid  :  luna  . 

*  ed. :  apparet  codd. 

"  See  §  52. 

^  In  bending  a  bow  the  left  arm   being   more  forward 
seenis  to  do  more  work  than  the  right. — The  ms.  text  makes 
Apollo  lean  on  the  moon  and  Diana  fling  her  torch  from  hcr 
left  hand ! 
580 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxviii. 

althoiigh  he  was  not  seeing  at  all  ?  Or  Hercules  in 
Euripides,  when  he  was  transfixine;  his  own  sons  with 
liis  arrowsas  if  they  were  those  of  Eurystheus,when  he 
was  making  away  with  his  wife,  when  he  was  attempt- 
ing  to  make  away  with  his  father  too, — was  he  not 
being  affected  by  things  false  in  the  same  manner  as 
if  the  things  by  which  he  was  affected  had  been  true  ? 
Again,  Alcmaeon  himself  whom  you  quote,**  who 
says  that  '  his  mind  agrees  not  with  his  eyes,' — 
does  he  not  in  the  same  passage  spur  on  his  frenzy 
and  cry 

Whence  does  this  flame  arise  ? 
and  then  the  words 

They  come,  they  come  !    Now,  now  they  are  upon  me  ! 
'Tis  me  they  seek  ! 

What  when  he  appeals  to  the  maiden's  loyalty  for 
aid — 

Help  me,  drive  the  venom  off,  the  flaming  violence  that 

torments  me  ! 
Girt  with  steely  snake  they  come,  they  ring  me  round  with 

burning  torches  ? 

surely  you  do  not  doubt  that  he  seems  to  himself  to 
see  these  things  ?    And  similarly  the  rest : 

Apollo  of  the  flowing  locks 
Against  me  bends  his  gilded  bow 
^^"ith  all  the  force  of  his  left  arm  *  ; 
Dian  her  torch  flings  from  the  moon — 

90  liow  would  he  have  believed  these  things  more  if  they 
had  really  been  true  than  he  actually  did  beUeve 
them  because  they  seemed  to  be  ?  for  as  it  was  it 
seemed  that  *  mind  with  eyes  agreeth.'  But  all  these 
things  are  brought  forward  in  order  to  prove  what 
is  the  most  certain  fact  possible,  that  in  respect  of 

581 


CICERO 

vera  et  falsa  ad  animi  adsensum  nihil  interesse.  Vos 
autem  nihil  agitis  cum  illa  falsa  vel  furiosorum  vel 
somniantium  recordatione  ipsorum  refelHtis  ;  non 
enim  id  quaeritur,  qualis  recordatio  fieri  soleat 
eorum  qui  experrecti  sint  aut  eorum  qui  furere 
destiterint,  sed  quahs  visio  fuerit  aut  furentium  aut 
somniantium  tum  cum  movebantur.  Sed  abeo  a 
sensibus. 

91  ' '  Quid  est  quod  ratione  percipi  possit  ?  Dialecticam 
inventam  esse  dicitis  veri  et  falsi  quasi  disceptatricem 
et  iudicem.  Cuius  veri  et  falsi,  et  in  qua  re  ?  In 
geometriane  quid  sit  verum  aut  falsum  dialecticus 
iudicabit  an  in  Utteris  an  in  musicis  ?  At  ea  non  novit. 
In  philosophia  igitur  ?  Sol  quantus  sit  quid  ad  illum  ? 
quod  sit  summum  bonum  quid  habet  ut  queat 
iudicare  ?  Quid  igitur  iudicabit  ?  quae  coniunctio, 
quae  diiunctio  vera  sit,  quid  ambigue  dictum  sit, 
quid  sequatur  quamque  rem,  quid  repugnet  ?  Si 
haec  et  horum  simiUa  iudicat,  de  se  ipsa  iudicat ; 
plus  autem  polhcebatur,  nam  haec  quidem  iudicare 
ad  ceteras  res  quae  sunt  in  philosophia  multae  atque 

92  magnae  non  est  satis.  Sed  quoniam  tantum  in  ea 
arte  ponitis,  videte  ne  contra  vos  tota  nata  sit,  quae 
primo  progressu  festive  tradit  elementa  loquendi 
et  ambiguorum  intellegentiam  concludendique  ratio- 

"  See  §§  26,  27. 

*  Twv  dXrjdoJv  Kai  xpevbdv  \6yujv  oiayvojaTLKr)  Sext.  P.H.  ii.  229. 

'  t.«.,  dialectic,  or  rather  Xo^c^ij,  which  included  both 
SiaXfKTiKTj,  or  logic  in  the  modern  sense,  and  prjTopiKri,  eUmenla 
loqvendi  below. 

582 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxviii. 

the  mind's  assent  there  is  no  difFerence  between  true 
presentations  and  false  ones.  But  your  school  acliieve 
nothing  when  you  refute  those  false  presentations 
by  appeahng  to  the  recollection  of  madmen  or 
dreamers  ;  for  the  questlon  is  not  what  sort  of  recol- 
lection  is  usually  experienced  by  those  who  have 
woken  up  or  have  ceased  to  be  mad,  but  what  was 
the  nature  of  the  visual  perception  of  men  mad  or 
dreaming  at  the  moment  when  their  experience  was 
taking  place,    But  I  am  getting  away  from  the  senses. 

91  "  What  is  it  that  the  reason  is  capable  of  per- (5)  Diaiectic 
cei\-ing  ?     Your  school   says   that  dialectic  was  in-  ^?^  "*^* 
vented  "   to   serve   as   a  '  distinguisher  '  ^   or  judge  certainty. 
between  truth  and  falsehood.    What  truth  and  false- 

hood,  and  on  what  subject .''  Will  the  dialectician 
judge  w^hat  is  true  or  false  in  geometry,  or  in  Utera- 
ture,  or  in  music  ?  But  those  are  not  the  subjects 
with  which  he  is  acquainted.  Inphilosophy  therefore? 
What  has  the  question  of  the  size  of  the  sun  to  do 
with  him  ?  what  means  has  he  to  enable  him  to 
judge  what  is  the  supreme  good  ?  What  then  will  he 
judge  ?  what  form  of  hypothetical  judgement  or  of 
inference  from  alternative  hypotheses  is  vahd,  what 
proposition  is  ambiguous,  what  conclusion  follows  from 
any  given  premiss  and  what  is  inconsistent  with  it  ?  If 
the  reason  judges  these  and  similar  matters,  it  judges 
about  itself ;  but  the  promise  that  it  held  out  went 
further,as  to  judge  merely  these  matters  is  not  enough 
for  all  the  other  numerous  and  important  problems 

92  contained  in  philosophy.     But  since  your  school  sets  Thesoritu 
so  much   store  by  that  science,*'  see  that  it  is  not  !^^^%^y  '-^, 

.11  .     i  .  1  1         r.         irrefutable, 

essentially  entireiy  agamst  you,  when  at  the  first 
stage  it  gaily  imparts  the  elements  of  discourse,  the 
solution  of  ambiguous  propositions  and  the  theory  of 

583 


CICEIIO 

nem;  tum  paucis  additis  venit  ad  soritas,  lubricum 
sane  et  periculosum  locum,  quod  tu  modo  dicebas 
esse  vitiosum  interrogandi  genus.  XXIX.  Quid 
ergo  ?  istius  \-itii  num  nostra  culpa  est  ?  Rerum 
natura  nullam  nobis  dedit  cognitionem  finium  ut 
ulla  in  re  statuere  possimus  quatenus  ;  nec  hoc  in 
acervo  tritici  solum  unde  nomen  est,  sed  nulla  omnino 
in  re — minutatim  interrogati,  dives  pauper,  clarus 
obscurus  sit,  multa  pauca,  magna  parva,  longa 
brevia,  lata  angusta,  quanto  aut  addito  aut  dempto 

93  certum  respondeamus  non^  habemus.  At  vitiosi 
sunt  soritae.  Frangite  igitur  eos,  si  potestis,  ne 
molesti  sint ;  erunt  enim,  nisi  cavetis.  '  Cautum  est,' 
inquit  ;  '  placet  enim  Chr^-sippo,  cum  gradatim 
interrogetur  (verbi  causa)  tria  pauca  sint  anne  multa, 
aUquanto  prius  quam  ad  multa  perveniat  quiescere, 
id  est  quod  ab  iis  dicitur  rjcrvxfi-C^Lv.'  *  Per  me  vel 
stertas  hcet,'  inquit  Carneades,  *  non  modo  quie- 
scas  ;  sed  quid  proficit  ?  sequitur  enim  qui  te 
ex  somno  excitet  et  eodem  modo  interroget  : 
'*  Quo  in  numero  conticuisti,  si  ad  eum  numerum 
unum  addidero,  multane  erunt  ?  " — progrediere 
rursus  quoad  videbitur.'  Quid  plura  ?  hoc  enim 
fateris,  neque  ultimum  te  paucorum  neque  primum 
multorum  respondere  posse  ;  cuius  generis  error  ita 
manat    ut    non    videam    quo    non    possit    accedere. 

94  *  Nihil   me   laedit,'   inquit,   *  ego    enim   ut   agitator 

^  [non]  Halm. 

"  See  §  49.  The  ar^runient  is  that  the  mere  existence  of 
the  Sorites  shows  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  logica) 
certainty  or  absolute  knowledge. 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (I.ucullus),  xxviii. — xxix. 

the  syllogism,  but  then  by  a  process  of  small  additions 
comes  to  the  sDrites,"-  certainly  a  sHppcry  and  danger- 
ous  position,  and  a  class  of  syllorrism  that  you  lately 
dcclared  to  be  erroneous.  XXIX.  What  then  ?  is 
that  an  error  for  which  we  are  to  blame  ?  No  faculty 
of  knowing  absoUite  hmits  has  been  bestowed  upon 
us  by  tlie  nature  of  things  to  enable  us  to  fix  exactly 
how  far  to  go  in  any  matter  ;  and  this  is  so  not  only 
in  the  case  of  a  heap  of  wheat  from  which  the  name 
is  derived,  but  in  no  matter  whatsoever — if  we  are 
asked  by  gradual  stages,  is  such  and  such  a  person  a 
rich  man  or  a  poor  man,  famous  or  undistinguished, 
are  yonder  objects  many  or  few,  great  or  small,  long 
or  short,  broad  or  narrow,  we  do  not  know  at  what 
point  in  the  addition  or  subtraction  to  give  a  definite 

93  answer.  But  you  say  that  the  sorites  is  erroneous. 
Smash  the  sorites  then,  if  you  can,  so  that  it  may  not 
get  you  into  trouble,  for  it  will  if  you  don't  take  pre- 
cautions.  *  Precautions  have  been  taken,'  says  he, 
*  for  the  pohcy  of  Chrysippus  is,  when  questioned  step 
by  step  whether  (for  example)  3  is  few  or  many,  a 
httle  before  he  gets  to  "  many,"  to  come  to  rest,  or, 
as  they  term  it,  hesychazein.'  '  So  far  as  I  am  con- 
cerned,'  says  Carneades,  '  you  may  not  only  rest  but 
even  snore  ;  but  what's  the  good  of  that  ?  for  next 
comes  somebody  bent  on  rousing  you  from  slumber 
and  carrying  on  the  cross-examination  :  "  If  I  add  1 
to  the  number  at  which  you  became  silent,  will  that 
make  many  ?  " — you  will  go  forward  again  as  far  as 
you  think  fit.'  Why  say  more  ?  for  you  admit  my 
point,  that  you  cannot  specify  in  your  answers  either 
tlie  place  where  '  a  few  '  stops  or  that  where  '  many  ' 
begins  ;  and  this  class  of  error  spreads  so  widely  that 

94  I  don't  see  where  it  may  not  get  to.     '  It  doesn't 

585 


CICERO 

callidus  prius  quam  ad  finem  veniam  equos  sustinebo, 
eoque  magis  si  locus  is  quo  ferentur  equi  praeceps 
erit :  sic  me,'  inquit,  '  ante  sustineo,  nec  diutius 
captiose  interroganti  respondeo.'  Si  habes  quod 
liqueat  neque  respondes,  superbe  ;  si  non  habes,  ne 
tu  quidem  percipis.  Si  quia  obscura,  concedo,  sed 
negas  te  usque  ad  obscura  progredi.  Inlustribus 
igitur  rebus  insistis.  Si  id  tantum  modo  ut  taceas, 
nihil  adsequeris,  quid  enim  ad  illum  qui  te  captare 
vult  utrum  tacentem  inretiat  te  an  loquentem  ?  sin 
autem  usque  ad  novem  verbi  gratia  sine  dubitatione 
respondes  pauca  esse,  in  decumo  insistis,  etiam  a 
certis  et  inlustrioribus  cohibes  adsensum  ;  hoc  idem 
me  in  obscuris  facere  non  sinis.  Nihil  igitur  te 
contra  soritas  ars  ista  adiuvat  quae  nec  augendi  nec 
minuendi^  quid  aut  primum  sit  aut  postremum  docet. 
95  Quid  quod  eadem  illa  ars  quasi  Penelope  telam 
retexens  tolUt  ad  extremum  superiora  ?  utrum  ea 
vestra  an  nostra  culpa  est  ?  Nempe  fundamentum 
dialecticae  est  quidquid  enuntietur  (id  autem  appel- 
lant  tt^tw/Att,  quod  est  quasi  effatum)  aut  verum  esse 
aut  falsum  ;  quid  igitur  ?  haec  vera  an  falsa  sunt : 
*  Si  te  mentiri  dicis  idque  verum  dicis,  mentiris  ^ '  ? 
Haec   scilicet   inexpHcabilia   esse    dicitis,   quod   est 

*  nec  augentis  nec  minucntis  Halm. 

*  mentiris  Klotz  {cf.  §  90) :    mentiris  verum  dicis  codd.  t 
mentiris  an  verum  dicis  Schutz. 

586 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxix. 

touch  me  at  all,'  says  he, '  for  Hke  a  clever  charioteer, 
before  I  get  to  the  end,  I  shall  pull  up  my  horses, 
and  all  the  more  so  if  the  place  they  are  coming  to 
is  precipitous  :  I  puU  up  in  time  as  he  does,'  says  he, 
*  and  when  captious  questions  are  put  I  don't  reply 
any  more.'  If  you  have  a  solution  of  the  problem 
and  won't  reply,  that  is  an  arrogant  way  of  acting, 
but  if  you  haven't,  you  too  don't  perceive  the  matter  ; 
if  because  of  its  obscurity,  I  give  in,  but  you  say  that 
you  don't  go  forward  till  you  get  to  a  point  that  is 
obscure.  If  so,  you  come  to  a  stop  at  things  that  are 
clear.  If  you  do  so  merely  in  order  to  be  silent,  you 
don't  score  anything,  for  what  does  it  matter  to 
the  adversary  who  wants  to  trap  you  whether  you  are 
silent  or  speaking  when  he  catches  you  in  his  net  ? 
but  if  on  the  contrary  you  keep  on  answering  '  few  * 
as  far  as  9,  let  us  say,  ^^ithout  hesitating,  but  stop  at 
10,  you  are  withholding  assent  even  from  propositions 
that  are  certain,  nay,  clear  as  dayhght  ;  but  you 
don't  allow  me  to  do  exactly  the  same  in  the  case  of 
things  that  are  obscure.  Consequently  that  science 
of  yours  gives  you  no  assistance  against  a  sorites,  as 
it  does  not  teach  you  either  the  first  point  or  the  last 
95  in  the  process  of  increasing  or  diminishing.  What  of  and  so  aiso 
the  fact  that  this  same  science  destroys  at  the  end  '^  ^  ^"'**' 
the  steps  that  came  before,  hke  Penelope  unweaving 
her  web  ?  is  your  school  to  blame  for  that  or  is  ours  ? 
Clearly  it  is  a  fundamental  principle  of  dialectic  that 
every  statement  (termed  by  them  axioma,  that  is, 
a  *  proposition  ')  is  either  true  or  false  ;  what  then  ? 
is  this  a  true  proposition  or  a  false  one — '  If  you  say 
that  you  are  lying  and  say  it  truly,  you  he  '  ?  Your 
school  of  course  says  that  these  problems  are  '  in- 

587 


CICERO 

odiosius  quam  illa  quae  nos  non  comprehensa  et  non 
percepta  dicimus. 

XXX.  "  Sed  hoc  omitto,  illud  quaero  :  si  ista 
exphcari  non  possunt  nec  eorum  ullum  iudicium 
invenitur  ut  respondere  possitis  verane  an  falsa  sint, 
ubi  est  illa  definitio,  effatum  esse  id  quod  aut  verum 
aut  falsum  sit  ?  Rebus  sumptis  adiungam  ex  iis 
sequendas  esse  alias,  aUas  improbandas,^  quae  sint  in 
genere  contrario.  Quo  modo  igitur  hoc  conchisum 
esse  iudicas  :  '  Si  dicis  nunc  lucere  et  verum  dicis, 
lucet  ;  dicis  autem  nunc  lucere  et  verum  dicis^  ; 
lucet  igitur  '  ?  Probatis  certe  genus  et  rectissime 
conclusum  dicitis,  itaque  in  docendo  eum  primum 
concludendi  modum  traditis.  Aut  quidquid  igitur 
eodem  modo  concluditur  probabitis  aut  ars  ista 
nulla  est.  ^^ide  ergo  hanc  conclusionem  proba- 
turusne  sis  :  *  Si  dicis  te  mentiri  verumque  dicis, 
mentiris  ;  dicis  autem  te  mentiri  verumque  dicis  ; 
mentiris  igitur  '  ;  qui  potes  hanc  non  probare  cum 
probaveris  eiusdem  generis  superiorem  ?  Haec 
Chrv^sippea  sunt,  ne  ab  ipso  quidem  dissoluta.  Quid 
enim  faceret  huic  conclusioni  :  *  Si  lucet,  lucet ; 
lucet  autem  ;  lucet  igitur  '  ?  cederet  sciUcet,  ipsa 
enim  ratio  conexi,  cum  concesseris  superius,  cogit 
inferius    concedere.     Quid    ergo    haec   ab   illa   con- 

^  sequenda  esse  alia,  alia  improbanda  ?  ed, 
2  lucet  .  .  .  dicis  inseruit  Manutius. 

"  5.TTopa, 

*  aliaa,  alias  =  ej^ata  alia,  alia  (attracted  to  the  gender  of 
rebus). 
588 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxix. — xxx. 

soluble,' "  which  is  more  vexatious  than  the  tliings 
termed  by  us  '  not  grasped  '  and  *  not  perccived.' 

XXX.  "  But  I  drop  this  point  and  ask  the  following 
question  :  if  the  problems  in  question  are  iiisoluble 
and  no  criterion  of  them  is  forthcoming  to  enable  you 
to  answer  whether  they  are  true  or  false,  what  be- 
comes  of  the  definition  of  a  *  proposition  '  as  '  that 
which  is  either  true  or  false  '  ?  Taking  certain  pre- 
misses  I  will  draw  the  conclusion  that,  of  two  sets 
of  propositions,  to  be  classed  as  contradictory,  one 
set  is  to  be  adopted  and  the  other  set  to  be  rejected.^ 
96  What  judgement  do  you  pass  on  the  procedure  of 
the  following  syllogism — '  If  you  say  that  it  is  hght 
now  and  speak  the  truth,  it  is  hght  ;  but  you  do  say 
that  it  is  hght  now  and  speak  the  truth  ;  therefore  it 
is  hght '  ?  Your  school  undoubtedly  approve  this  class 
of  syllogism  and  say  that  it  is  completely  vahd,  and 
accordingly  it  is  the  first  mode  of  proof  that  you  give 
in  your  lectures.  Either  therefore  you  will  approve 
of  every  syllogism  in  the  same  mode,  or  that  science 
of  yours  is  no  good.  Consider  therefore  whether 
you  will  approve  the  foUowing  syllogism  :  *  If  you  say 
that  you  are  lying  and  speak  the  truth,  you  are  lying  ; 
but  you  do  say  that  you  are  lying  and  speak  the 
truth  ;  therefore  you  are  lying  '  ;  how  can  you  not 
approve  this  syllogism  when  you  approved  the  pre- 
vious  one  of  the  same  class  ?  These  fahacies  are  the 
inventions  of  Chrysippus,  and  even  he  himself  could 
not  solve  them  ;  for  what  could  he  make  of  this 
syllogism — '  If  it  is  hght,  it  is  hght  ;  but  it  is  hght ; 
therefore  it  is  hght '  ?  Of  course  he  would  agree  ; 
for  the  very  nature  of  hypothetical  inference  compels 
you  to  grant  the  conclusion  if  you  have  granted  the 
premiss.     WTiat  then  Is  the  diiference  between  this 

589 


CICERO 

clusione  differt  :  *  Si  mentiris,  mentiris  ;  mentiris 
autem  ;  mentiris  igitur  '  ?  Hoc  negas  te  posse  nec 
adprobare  nec  improbare  ;  qui  igitur  magis  illud  ? 
si   ars,  si  ratio,  si  via,   si  vis  denique   conclusionis 

97  valet,  eadem  est  in  utroque.  Sed  hoc  extremum 
eorum  est :  postulant  ut  excipiantur  haec  inexplica- 
biUa.  Tribunum  ahquem  censeo  videant :  a  me  istam 
exceptionem  numquam  impetrabunt.  Etenim  cum 
ab  Epicuro,  qui  totam  dialecticam  et  contemnit  et 
inridet,  non  impetrent  ut  verum  esse  concedat  quod 
ita  effabimur,  '  Aut  vivet  cras  Hermarchus  aut  non 
vivet,'  cum  dialectici  sic  statuant,  omne  quod  ita 
disiunctum  sit  quasi  '  aut  etiam  aut  non  '  non  modo 
verum  esse  sed  etiam  necessarium,  vide  quam  sit 
cautus^  is  quem  isti  tardum^  putant  ;  '  Si  enim,' 
inquit,  '  alterutrum  concessero  necessarium  esse, 
necesse  erit  cras  Hermarchum  aut  vivere  aut  non 
vivere  ;  nuUa  autem  est  in  natura  rerum  tahs 
necessitas.'  Cum  hoc  igitur  dialectici  pugnent,  id 
est  Antiochus  et  Stoici  ;  totam  enim  evertit  dia- 
lecticam,  nam  si  e  contrariis  disiunctio — contraria 
autem  ea  dico,  cum  alterum  aiat,  alterum  neget — si 
tahs   disiunctio   falsa   potest   esse,    nuUa   vera   est ; 

98  mecum  vero  quid  habent  htium,  qui  ipsorum  disci- 
phnam  sequor  ?  Cum  ahquid  huius  modi  inciderat, 
sic  ludere   Carneades   solebat  :    '  Si  recte   conclusi, 

^  catus  Lamhinus:  acutus  Reid. 
^  bardum  ?  Reid. 

*  In  civjl  buits  the  praetor  did  not  try  the  facts  but  issued 
an  instruction  to  an  inferior  court  to  cast  the  defendant  if 
certain  facts  were  proved,  and  sometimes  also  unless  certain 
other  facts  were  proved  :  the  latter  clause  was  an  exceptio. 
\\'  the  praetor  refused  to  grant  an  exceptio,  ti.e  defendant 
nii«3'ht  appeal  to  a  tribune,  who  couJd  procure  the  grant  by 
5.)0 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxx. 

syllogism  and  the  former  one — '  If  you  are  lying,  you 
are  lying  ;  but  you  are  lying  ;  therefore  you  are 
lying  '  ?  You  say  that  you  are  unable  either  to  agree 
to  this  or  to  disprove  it ;  how  then  are  you  more  able 
to  deal  "with  the  other  ?  if  science,  reason,  method, 
in  fact  if  the  syllogistic  proof  is  vahd,  it  is  the 
same  in  either  case.  But  the  farthest  length  they  go 
is  to  demand  that  these  insoluble  problems  should  be 
deemcd  an  exception.  My  advice  to  them  is  to  apply 
to  some  tribune  "  :  they  will  never  get  that  '  saving 
clause  '  from  me.  For  as  they  will  not  get  Epicurus, 
who  despises  and  laughs  at  the  whole  of  dialectic,  to 
admit  the  validity  of  a  proposition  of  the  form  '  Herm- 
archus  will  either  be  ahve  to-morrow  or  not  ahve,' 
whereas  dialecticians  lay  it  down  that  every  disjunc- 
tive  proposition  of  the  form  '  either  x  or  not-a-  '  is 
not  only  vahd  but  even  necessary,  see  how  on  his 
guard  the  man  is  whom  your  friends  think  slow  ;  for 
'  If,'  he  says,  '  I  admit  either  of  the  two  to  be  neces- 
sary,  it  will  foUow  that  Hermarchus  must  eitlier  be 
ahve  to-m.orrow  or  not  ahve ;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact 
in  the  nature  of  things  no  such  neccssity  exists.' 
Therefore  let  the  dialecticians,  that  is,  Antioclius  and 
the  Stoics,  do  battle  with  this  philosopher,  for  he  over- 
throws  the  whole  of  dialectic,  if  a  disjunctive  propo- 
sition  consisting  of  two  contrary  statements — '  con- 
trary  '  meaning  one  of  them  affirmative,  the  other 
negative — if  a  disjunctive  proposition  of  this  sort  can 
be  false,  none  is  true ;  but  what  quarrel  have  they  with 
me,  who  am  a  disciple  of  their  own  school  ?  When 
any  situation  of  this  nature  occurred,  Carneades  used 
to  play  with  the  matter  thus :   '  If  my  conclusion  is 

threatening  if  it  were  not  given  to  annul  tlie  whole  of  the 
praetor's  instruction. 

^91 


CICERO 

teneo^  ;  sin  vitiose,  minam  Diogenes  mihi  reddet  * 
(ab  eo  enim  Stoico  dialecticam  didicerat,  haec  autem 
mcrces  erat  dialecticorum).  Sequor  igitur  eas  vias 
quas  didici  ab  Antiocho,  nec  reperio  quo  modo 
iudicem  '  Si  lucet,  lucet  '  verum  esse  (ob  eam  causam 
quod  ita  didici,  omne  quod  ipsum  ex  se  conexum  sit 
verum  esse),  non  iudicem  '  Si  mentiris,  mentiris  ' 
eodem  modo  esse  conexum.  Aut  igitur  et^  hoc  et 
illud  aut  nisi  hoc  ne  illud  quidem  iudicabo. 

XXXI.  "  Sed  ut  omnes  istos  aculeos  et  totum 
tortuosum  genus  disputandi  relinquamus  ostendamus- 
que  qui  simus,  iam  explicata  tota  Carneadis  sententia 
Antiochi  ista  conruent  universa.  Nec  vero  quic- 
quam  ita  dicam  ut  quisquam  id  fingi  suspicetur  :  a 
Chtomacho  sumam,  qui  usque  ad  senectutem  cum 
Carneade  fuit,  homo  et  acutus  ut  Poenus  et  valde 
studiosus  ac  dihgens.  Et  quattuor  eius  hbri  sunt  de 
sustinendis  adsensionibus,  haec  autem  quae  iam 
99  dicam  sunt  sumpta  de  primo.  Duo  placet  esse 
Carneadi  genera  visorum,  in  uno  hanc  di^-isionem, 
aha  \-isa  esse  quae  percipi  possint,  aha  quae  percipi 
non  possint,  in  altero  autem  alia  visa  esse  probabiha, 
aha  non  probabiha  ;  itaque  quae  contra  sensus 
contraque  perspicuitatem  dicantur  ea  pertinere  ad 
superiorem  divisionem,  contra  posteriorem  nihil  dici 

^  <te>  teneo  Davies.  "  et  inseruif  ed. 

°  Say  i'4..  The  professor  mentioned  was  a  minor  Stoic, 
a  Babvlonian ;  he  went  with  Carneades  to  Rome  on  the 
famous  embassy,  §  137.  *  C/.  §  75. 

'  (pavTaa-iaL  KaTaXrjTrTiKai  and  d/carciXT^TrTot,  Tndavai  and 
i.irldapoi, 

592 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxx.— xxxi. 

correct,  I  keep  to  it ;  if  it  is  faulty,  Diogenes  will  pay 
me  back  a  mina^ '  (for  Diogenes  as  a  Stoic  had  taught 
him  dialectic,  and  that  was  the  fee  of  professors  of 
that  subject).  I  therefore  am  foUowing  the  methods 
of  procedure  that  I  learnt  from  Antiochus,  and  I  can- 
not  make  out  how  I  am  to  form  the  judgement  that 
the  proposition  '  If  it  is  Hght,  it  is  hght  '  is  a  true  one 
(because  I  was  taught  that  every  hypothetical  in- 
ference  is  true),  but  not  form  the  judgement  that 
*  If  you  are  lying,  you  are  lying  '  is  an  inference  on 
the  same  hnes.  Either  therefore  I  shall  make  both 
the  former  judgement  and  the  latter  one,  or,  if  not 
the  former,  not  the  latter  either. 

XXXI.  "  But  to  leave  all  those  stinging  repartees  (6)Thecon- 
and  the  whole  of  the  tortuous  class  of  argument  ^  sfj^^jj^j^® 
and  to  dispLiy  our  real  position,  as  soon  as  the  whole  Cameades: 
system  of  Carneades  has  been  unfolded  the  doctrines  sensaUoif 
of  your  Antiochus  will  come  to  the  ground  in  complete  [^  ®°°^!^^x, 
collapse.    However,  I  will  not  assert  anything  in  such  wiSm&n. 
a  manner  that  anybody  may  suspect  me  of  inventing  ; 
I  shall  take  it  from  CHtomachus,  who  was  a  companion 
of  Carneades  quite  until  old  age,  a  clever  fellow  as 
being  a  Carthaginian,  and  also  extremely  studious 
and  industrious.    There  are  four  volumes  of  his  that 
deal  with  the  ^Wthholding  of  assent,  but  what  I  am 
now  going  to  say  has  been  taken  from  Volume  One. 
99  Carneades  holds  that  there  are  two  classifications  of 
presentations,  which  under  one  are  divided  into  those 
that  can  be  perceived  and  those  that  cannot,  and 
under  the  other  into  those  that  are  probable  and  those 
that  are  not  probable  «^ ;    and  that  accordingly  those 
presentations  that  are  styled  by  the  Academy  con- 
trary  to  the  senses  and  contrary  to  perspicuity  belong 
to  the  former  division,  whereas  the  latter  division 

593 


CICERO 

oportere  ;  quare  ita  placere,  tale  visum  nullum  esse 
ut  perceptio  consequeretur,  ut  autem  probatio, 
multa.  Etenim  contra  naturam  est^  probabile  nihil 
esse,  et  sequitur  omnis  vitae  ea  quam  tu,  Luculle, 
commemorabas  eversio  ;  itaque  et  sensibus  probanda 
multa  sunt,  teneatur  modo  illud,  non  inesse  in  iis 
quicquam  tale  quale  non  etiam  falsum  nihil  ab  eo 
difFerens  esse  possit.  Sic  quidquid  acciderit  specie 
probabile,  si  nihil  se  offeret  quod  sit  probabiHtati  illi 
contrarium,  utetur  eo  sapiens,  ac  sic  omnis  ratio 
vitae  gubernabitur.  Etenim  is  quoque  qui  a  vobis 
sapiens  inducitur  multa  sequitur  probabilia,  non 
comprehensa  neque  percepta  neque  adsensa  sed 
similia  veri  ;  quae  nisi  probet,  omnis  vita  tollatur. 
100  Quid  enim  ?  conscendens  navem  sapiens  num  com- 
prehensum  animo  habet  atque  perceptum  se  ex  sen- 
tentia  navigaturum  ?  qui  potest  ?  Sed  si  iam  ex  hoc 
loco  proficiscatur  Puteolos  stadia  triginta  probo 
navigio,  bono  gubernatore,  hac  tranquilUtate,  pro- 
babile  ei^  videatur  se  illuc  venturum  esse  salvum. 
Huius  modi  igitur  visis  consiha  capiet  et  agendi  et 
non  agendi,  facihorque  erit  ut  albam  esse  nivem 
probet  quam  erat  Anaxagoras  (qui  id  non  modo  ita 
esse  negabat  sed  sibi,  quia  sciret  aquam  nigram  esse 
unde  illa  concreta  ^  esset,  albam  ipsam  esse  ne  videri 

*  est  Miiller:  esset  codd.  ^  ei  inseruit  Lambinus, 

3  Man.  :  congregata  codd. 

"  S§  31,  53,  58. 
594. 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxxi. 

must  not  be  impugned  ;  and  that  consequently  his 
view  is  that  there  is  no  presentation  of  such  a  sort  as 
to  result  in  perception,  but  many  that  result  in  a 
judgement  of  probability.  For  it  is  contrary  to  nature 
for  nothing  to  be  probable,  and  entails  that  entire 
subversion  of  life  of  which  you,  Lucullus,  were  speak- 
ing<^;  accordingly  even  many  sense-percepts  must 
be  deemed  probable,  if  only  it  be  held  in  mind  that 
no  sense-presentation  has  such  a  character  as  a  false 
presentation  could  not  also  have  without  differing 
from  It  at  all.  Thus  the  >\ise  man  ^^ill  make  use  of 
whatever  apparently  probable  presentation  he  en- 
counters,  if  nothing  presents  itself  that  is  contrary 
to  that  probability,  and  his  whole  plan  of  hfe  will  be 
charted  out  in  this  manner.  In  fact  even  the  person 
whom  your  school  brings  on  the  stage  as  the  \\dse  man 
follows  many  things  probable.  that  he  has  not  grasped 
nor  perceived  nor  assented  to  but  that  possess  veri- 
simihtude  ;  and  if  he  were  not  to  approve  them,  all 
100  Ufe  would  be  done  away  with.  Another  point  :  when 
a  \\"ise  man  is  going  on  board  a  ship  surely  he  has  not 
got  the  knowledge  ah-eady  grasped  in  his  mind 
and  perceived  that  he  will  make  the  voyage  as  he 
intends  ?  how  can  he  have  it  ?  But  if  for  instance  he 
were  setting  out  from  here  to  PuteoH,  a  distance  of 
four  miles,  with  a  rehable  crew  and  a  good  hehiisman 
and  in  the  present  calm  weather,  it  would  appear 
probable  that  he  would  get  there  safe.  He  will  there- 
fore  be  guided  by  presentations  of  this  sort  to  adopt 
plans  of  action  and  of  inaction,  and  will  be  readier  at 
proving  that  snow  is  white  than  Anaxagoras  M'as  (who 
not  only  denied  that  this  was  so,  but  asserted  that  to 
him  snow  did  not  even  appear  white,  because  he 
knew  that  it  was  made  of  water  sohdified  and  that 

595 


CICERO 

101  quidem)  ;  et  quaecumque  res  eum  sic  attinget  ut 
sit  visum  illud  probabile  neque  ulla  re  impeditum, 
movebitur.  Non  enim  est  e  saxo  sculptus  aut  e 
robore  dolatus ;  habet  corpus,  habet  animum, 
movetur  mente,  movetur  sensibus,  ut  esse^  ei  vera 
multa  videantur,  neque  tamen  habere  insignem  illam 
et  propriam  percipiendi  notam,  eoque  sapientem 
non  adsentiri,  quia  possit  eiusdem  modi  exsistere 
falsum  aliquod  cuius  modi  hoc  verum.  Neque  nos 
contra  sensus  ahter  dicimus  ac  Stoici,  qui  multa  falsa 
esse  dicunt  longeque  ahter  se  habere  ac  sensibus 
videantur. 

XXXII.  "  Hoc  autem  si  ita  sit,  ut  unum  modo 
sensibus  falsum  videatur,  praesto  est  qui  neget  rem 
uham  percipi  posse  sensibus  !  Ita  nobis  tacentibus 
ex  uno  Epicuri  capite,  altero  vestro  perceptio  et 
comprehensio  tolhtur.  Quod  est  caput  Epicuri  ? 
*  Si  uUum  sensus  visum  falsum  est,  nihil  percipi 
potest.'  Quod  vestrum  ?  *  Sunt  falsa  sensus  visa.* 
Quid  sequitur  ?  Ut  taceam,  conclusio  ipsa  loquitur 
nihil  posse  percipi.  *  Non  concedo,'  inquit, '  Epicuro.' 
Certa  igitur  cum  illo,  qui  a  te  totus  diversus  est,  noh 
mecum,  qui  hoc  quidem  certe,  falsi  esse  ahquid  in 

102  sensibus,  tibi  adsentior.  Quamquam  nihil  mihi  tam 
mirum  videtur  quam  ista  dici,  ab  Antiocho  quidem 

^  esse  inseruit  ed. 

•  i.e.,  Lucullus,  wliom  Cicero  is  addressing,  c/.  §§  80,  94. 

5y6 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Llcullus),  xxxi. — xxxii. 

01  water  was  black)  ;  and  wliatever  object  comes  in  con- 
tact  with  him  in  such  a  way  that  the  presentation  is 
probable,  and  unhindered  by  anything,  he  will  be  set 
in  motion.  For  he  is  not  a  statue  carved  out  of  stone 
or  he^NTi  out  of  timber ;  he  has  a  body  and  a  mind, 
a  mobile  intellect  and  mobile  senses,  so  that  many 
things  seem  to  him  to  be  true,  although  nevertheless 
they  do  not  seem  to  him  to  possess  that  distinct  and 
pecuhar  mark  leading  to  perception,  and  hence  the 
doctrine  that  the  wise  man  does  not  assent,  for  the 
reason  that  it  is  possible  for  a  false  presentation  to 
occur  that  has  the  same  character  as  a  given  true  one. 
Nor  does  our  pronouncement  against  the  senses  difFer 
from  that  of  the  Stoics,  who  say  that  many  things  are 
false  and  widely  different  from  what  they  appear  to 
the  senses. 

XXXII.  "  If  however  this  be  the  case,  let  the  Certainty 
senses  receive  but  a  single  false  presentation,  and  he  <^  needed  toi 
stands  ready  to  deny  that  the  senses  can  perceive  conduct. 
anything  !  Thus  a  single  first  principle  of  Epicurus 
combined  with  another  belonging  to  your  school 
results  in  the  abohtion  of  perception  and  comprehen- 
sion,  without  our  utterino'  a  word.  What  is  the  prin- 
ciple  of  Epicurus  ?  '  If  any  sense-presentation  is 
false,  nothing  can  be  perceived.'  What  is  yours  ? 
'  There  are  false  sense-presentations.'  What  follov.s  } 
Without  any  word  of  mine,  logical  inference  of  itself 
declares  that  nothing  can  be  perceived.  *  I  do  not 
admit  Epicurus's  point,'  says  he.  Well  then,  figlit  it 
out  with  Epicurus — he  differs  from  you  entirely  ; 
don't  join  issue  with  me,  who  at  all  events  agree 
with  you  so  far  as  to  hold  that  there  is  an  element 

02  of  falsehood  in  the  senses.  Although  nothing  seems 
to  me  80  surprising  as  that  those  dootrines  should  be 

597 


CICERO 

maxime,  cui  erant  ea  quae  paulo  ante  dixi  notissima. 
Licet  enim  hoc  quivis  arbitratu  suo  reprehendat 
quod  negemus  rem  ullam  percipi  posse,  certe  levior 
reprehensio  est ;  quod  tamen  dicimus  esse  quaedam 
probabilia,  non  ^idetur  hoc  satis  esse  vobis.  Ne  sit ; 
illa  certe  debemus  efFugere  quae  a  te  vel  maxime 
agitata  sunt  :  '  Nihil  igitur  cernis  ?  nihil  audis  ? 
nihil  tibi  est  perspicuum  ?  '  Exphcavi  paulo  ante 
CUtomacho  auctore  quo  modo  ista  Carneades  diceret  ; 
accipe  quem  ad  modum  eadem  dicantur  a  CHtomacho 
in  eo  Hbro  quem  ad  C.  LuciHum  scripsit  poetam,  cum 
scripsisset  iisdem  de  rebus  ad  L.  Censorinum  eum 
qui  consul  cum  M'.  ManiHo  fuit.  Scripstt  igitur  his 
fere  verbis — sunt  enim  mihi  nota,  propterea  quod 
earum  ipsarum  rerum  de  quibus  agimus  prima 
institutio  et  quasi  discipHna  iHo  Hbro  continetur — sed 
103  scriptum  est  ita  :  Academicis  placere  esse  rerum 
eius  modi  dissimiHtudines  ut  aHae  probabiles  videan- 
tur,  aHae  contra  ;  id  autem  non  esse  satis  cur  alia 
posse  percipi  dicas,  aHa  non  posse,  propterea  quod 
multa  falsa  probabiHa  sint,  nihil  autem  falsi  percep- 
tum  et  cognitum  possit  esse.  Itaque  ait  vehementer 
errare  eos  qui  dicant  ab  Academia  sensus  eripi,  a 
quibus  numquam  dictum  sit  aut  colorem  aut  saporem 
aut  sonum  nuUum  esse,  iHud  sit  disputatum,  non 

<»  149  B.c. 

^  Quasi  marks  disciplina  as  an  explanation  of  institutio 
used  to  translate  some  Greek  term,  perhaps  avffTijfxa. 

598 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxxii. 

asserted,  especially  indeed  by  Antiochus,  who  was 
perfectly  well  acquainted  with  the  arguments  that  I 
stated  a  httle  before.  For  even  though  anybody  at 
his  own  discretion  may  criticize  our  statement  that 
nothing  can  be  perceived,  that  is  a  less  serious  criti- 
cism ;  but  it  is  our  assertion  that  there  are  some  things 
that  are  probable  that  seems  to  your  school  to  be 
inadequate.  It  may  be  ;  anyhow  it  is  certainly  up  to 
us  to  get  round  the  difficulties  that  you  raised  with 
the  greatest  insistency  :  *  Do  you  then  see  nothing  ? 
do  you  hear  nothing  ?  is  nothing  clear  to  you  ?  '  I 
quoted  from  Chtomachus  a  httle  earher  an  explana- 
tion  of  the  way  in  which  Carneades  treated  the  diffi- 
culties  you  refer  to  ;  let  me  give  you  the  way  in 
which  the  same  points  are  dealt  witli  by  Chtomachus 
in  the  volume  that  he  m-ote  to  the  poet  Gaius 
Lucihus,  although  he  had  written  on  the  same  sub- 
jects  to  the  Lucius  Censorinus  who  was  Manius 
Manihus's  colleague  in  the  consulship.°  He  wrote 
then  in  almost  these  words — for  I  am  famihar  with 
them,  because  the  primary  '  system  '  or  doctrine  * 
which  we  are  deahng  with  is  contained  in  tliat  book — 
103  but  it  runs  as  foUows  :  *  The  Academic  school  holds 
that  there  are  dissimilarities  between  things  of  such 
a  nature  that  some  of  them  seem  probable  and  others 
the  contrary  ;  but  this  is  not  an  adequate  ground  for 
saying  that  some  things  can  be  perceived  and  others 
cannot,  because  many  false  objects  are  probable  but 
nothing  false  can  be  perceived  and  known.'  And 
accordingly  he  asserts  that  those  who  say  that  the 
Academy  robs  us  of  our  senses  are  violently  mistaken, 
as  that  school  never  said  that  colour,  taste  or  sound 
was  non-existent,  but  their  contention  was  that  these 
presentatiuns  do  not  contain  a  mark  of  truth  and 

5[)9 


CICERO 

inesse  in  iis  propriam  quae  nusquam  alibi  esset  veri 

104  et  certi  notam.  Quae  cum  exposuisset,  adiungit 
dupliciter  dici  adsensus  sustinere  sapientem,  uno 
modo  cum  hoc  intellegatur,  omnino  eum  rei  nuUi 
adsentiri,  altero  cum  se  a  respondendo  ut  aut  ad- 
probet  quid^  aut  improbet  sustineat,  ut  neque  neget 
aliquid  neque  aiat ;  id  cum  ita  sit,  alterum  placere, 
ut  numquam  adsentiatur,  alterum  tenere,  ut  sequens 
probabilitatem  ubicumque  haec  aut  occurrat  aut 
deficiat  aut  *  etiam  '  aut  '  non  '  respondere  possit. 
Etenim  cum^  placeat  eum  qui  de  omnibus  rebus 
contineat  se  ab  adsentiendo  moveri  tamen  et  agere 
ahquid,  relinqui  eius  modi  visa  quibus  ad  actionem 
excitemur,  item  ea  quae  interrogati  in  utramque 
partem  respondere  possimus,  sequentes  tantum  modo 
quod  ita  visum  sit,  dum  sine  adsensu  ;  neque  tamen 
omnia  eius  modi  visa  adprobari,^'  sed  ea  quae  nulla  re 
impedirentur. 

105  Haec  si  vobis  non  probamus,  sint  falsa  sane, 
invidiosa  certe  non  sunt,  non  enim  lucem  eripimus, 
sed  ea  quae  vos  percipi  comprehendique,  eadem  nos, 
si  modo  probabilia  sint,  videri  dicimus. 

XXXIII.  "  Sic  igitur  inducto  et  constituto  proba- 
bili,  et  eo  quidem  expedito,  soluto,  libero,  nuUa  re 
implicato,  vides  profecto,  Luculle,  iacere  iam  illud 

^  ut  quid  aut  adprobet  ?  Reid. 

*  etenim  cum  Reid  :  nec  ut  codd. 

^  adprobavit  cod.  unus. 

600 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxxii. — xxxiii. 

certainty  peculiar  to  themselves  and  found  nowhere 

104  clse.  After  setting  out  these  points,  he  adds  that 
the  formula  *  the  wise  man  withholds  assent  '  is  used 
in  two  ways,  one  when  the  meaning  is  that  he  gives 
absolute  assent  to  no  presentation  at  all,  the  other 
when  he  restrains  himself  from  replying  so  as  to 
convey  approval  or  disapproval  of  something,  with  the 
consequence  that  he  neither  makes  a  negation  nor  an 
affirmation  ;  and  that  this  being  so,  he  holds  the  one 
plan  in  theory,  so  that  he  never  assents,  but  the 
cther  in  practice,  so  that  he  is  guided  by  probabihty, 
and  wherever  this  confronts  him  or  is  wanting  he 
can  answer  '  yes  '  or  *  no  '  accordingly.  In  fact  as  we 
hold  that  he  who  restrains  himself  from  assent  about 
all  things  nevertheless  does  movc  and  does  act,  the 
view  is  that  there  remain  presentations  of  a  sort  that 
arouse  us  to  action,  and  also  answers  that  we  can 
give  in  the  affirmative  or  the  negative  in  reply  to 
questions,  merely  follo^^ing  a  corresponding  presenta- 
tion,  provided  that  we  answer  without  actual  assent ; 
but  that  nevertheless  not  all  presentations  of  this 
character  were  actually  approved,  but  those  that 
nothing  hindered. 

105  If  we  do  not  win  your  approval  for  these  doctrines, 
they  may  no  doubt  be  false,  but  certainly  they  are 
not  detestable.  For  we  don't  rob  you  of  dayliglit, 
but,  whereas  you  speak  of  things  as  being '  perceived  ' 
and  '  grasped,'  we  describe  the  same   things  (pro- 

vided  they  are  probable)  as  *  appearing.'  ,-.  j^    j   ^ 

XXXIII.  "  Xow    therefore    that    we    have    thus  lucuUus's 
brought    in    and    estabhshed    '  probabihty,'    and    afourth*'"^ 
probabihty  rid  of  difficulties,  untrammelled,  free,  un-  argunients: 
entangled  with  anything,  you  doubtless  see,  Lucullus,  is  enougi/ 
that  all  your  former  advocacy  of  *  perspicuity  '  now  HI^q^  ^^' 

601 


CICERO 

tnum  perspicuitatis  patrocinium.  lisdem  enim  hic 
sapiens  de  quo  loquor  oculis  quibus  iste  vester  caelum, 
terram,  mare  intuebitur,  iisdem  sensibus  reliqua  quae 
sub  quemque  sensum  cadunt  sentiet.  Mare  illud 
quod  nunc  favonio  nascente  purpureum  videtur,  idem 
huic  nostro  videbitur,  nec  tamen  adsentietur,  quia 
nobismet  ipsis  modo  caeruleum  videbatur,  mane 
ravum,^  quodque  nunc  qua  a  sole  conlucet  albescit  et 
vibrat  dissimileque  est  proximo  et  continenti,  ut 
etiamsi  possis  rationem  reddere  cur  id  eveniat,  tamen 
non  possis  id  verum  esse  quod  videbatur  oculis  de- 
106  fendere.  Unde  memoria,  si  nihil  percipimus  ?  sic 
enim  quaerebas.  Quid  ?  meminisse  visa  nisi  com- 
prensa  non  possumus  ?  Quid  ?  Polyaenus,  qui  mag- 
nus  mathematicus  fuisse  dicitur,  is  posteaquam  Epi- 
curo  adsentiens  totam  geometriam  falsam  esse  credi- 
dit,  num  illa  etiam  quae  sciebat  oblitus  est  ?  Atqui 
falsum  quod  est  id  percipi  non  potest,  ut  vobismet 
ipsis  placet ;  si  igitur  memoria  perceptarum  com- 
prensarumque  rerum  est,  omnia  quae  quisque 
meminit  habet^  comprensa  atque  percepta ;  falsi 
autem  comprendi  nihil  potest,  et  omnia  meminit 
Siron  Epicuri  dogmata ;  vera  igitur  illa  sunt  nunc 
omnia.  Hoc  per  me  hcet ;  sed  tibi  aut  concedendum 
est  ita  esse,  quod  minime  vis,  aut  memoriam  mihi 
remittas  oportet  et  fateare^  esse  ei  locum,  etiamsi 

^  ravum  videbitur  ?  ed. 
*  habet  ?  Reid  :  habet  ea  codd. 
^  Davies  :  facile  vel  facere  codd. 

•  See  §  22. 
602 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxxiii. 

collapses.  For  this  wise  man  of  whom  I  am  speak- 
ing  will  bchold  the  sky  and  earth  and  sea  with  the 
same  eyes  as  the  wise  man  of  your  school,  and 
will  perceive  with  the  same  senses  the  rest  of  the 
objects  that  fall  under  each  of  them.  Yonder  sea 
that  now  with  the  west  wind  rising  looks  purple,  will 
look  the  same  to  our  wise  man,  though  at  the  same 
time  he  will  not  '  assent '  to  the  sensation,  because 
even  to  ourselves  it  looked  blue  just  now  and  to- 
morrow  it  will  look  grey,  and  because  now  where  the 
sun  hghts  it  up  it  whitens  and  shimmers  and  is  unhke 
the  part  immediately  adjoining,  so  that  even  if  you 
are  able  to  explain  why  this  occurs,  you  neverthe- 
less  cannot  maintain  that  the  appearance  that  was 
G  presented  to  your  eyes  was  true  !  If  we  perceive  Certainty 
nothing,  what  is  the  cause  of  memory  ? — that  was  a  dispensabie 
question  you  were  asking.'*  What  ?  are  we  unable  for  memory 
to  remember  sense-presentations  unless  we  have  the  arts. 
comprehended  them  ?  What  ?  Polyaenus  is  said 
to  have  been  a  great  mathematician  :  after  he  had 
accepted  the  view  of  Epicurus  and  come  to  beheve 
that  all  geometry  is  false,  surely  he  did  not  forget 
even  the  knowledge  that  he  possessed  ?  Yet  what  is 
false  cannot  be  perceived,  as  you  yourselves  hold  ;  if 
therefore  the  objects  of  memory  are  things  perceived 
and  comprehended,  all  the  things  a  man  remembers 
he  holds  grasped  and  perceived  ;  but  nothing  false 
can  be  grasped,  and  Siro  remembers  all  the  doctrines 
of  Epicurus  ;  therefore  in  the  present  state  of  things 
those  doctrines  are  all  true.  This  may  be  so  as  far 
as  I  am  concerned  ;  but  you  are  either  bound  to 
allow  that  it  is  so,  which  is  the  last  thing  you 
are  wilhng  to  do,  or  you  must  grant  me  memory 
and  admit  that  it  has  a  place,  even  if  grasp  and 

603 


CICERO 

107  comprehensio  perceptioque  nulla  sit.  Quid  fiet  arti- 
bus  ?  Quibus  ?  iisne  quae  ipsae  fatentur  conicctura 
se  plus  uti  quam  scientia,  an  iis  quae  tantum  id  quod 
videtur  sequuntur  nec  habent  istam  artem  vestram 
qua  vera  et  falsa  diiudicent  ? 

"  Sed  illa  sunt  lumina  duo  quae  maxime  causam 
istam  continent.  Primum  enim  negatis  fieri  posse  ut 
quisquam  nuUi  rei  adsentiatur,  et  id  quidem  perspi- 
cuum  esse.^  Cum  Panaetius,  princeps  prope  meo 
quidem  iudicio  Stoicorum,  ea  de  re  dubitare  se  dicat 
quam  omnes  praeter  eum  Stoici  certissimam  putant, 
vera  esse  haruspicum  responsa,^  auspicia,  oracula, 
somnia,  vaticinationes,  seque  ab  adsensu  sustineat, 
quod  is  potest  facere  etiam^  de  iis  rebus  quas  illi  u 
quibus  ipse  didicit  certas  habuerunt,*  cur  id  sapiens 
de  reliquis  rebus  facere  non  possit  ?  An  est  aliquid 
quod  positum  vel  improbare  vel  adprobare  possit, 
dubitare  non  possit  ?  an  tu  in  soritis  poteris  hoc  cum 
voles,  ille  in  rehquis  rebus  non  poterit  eodem  modo 
insistere,  praesertim  cum  possit  sine  adsensione  ipsam 

108  veri  simihtudinem  non  impeditam  sequi  ?  Alterum 
est  quod  negatis  actionem  uUius  rei  posse  in  eo  esse 
qui  nullam  rem  adsensu  suo  comprobet  ;  primum 
enim  videri  oportet,  in  quo  est^  etiam  adsensus, 
dicunt  enim  Stoici  sensus  ipsos  adsensus  esse,  quos 
quoniam  adpetitio  consequatur,  actionem  sequi,  tolh 

'  et  id  quidem  p.  esse  Reid  :  at  .  .  .  est  codd. 

*  responsa  inseruit  Ernesti:  omnia  ?  Reid. 

'  etiam  ?  Reid  :  ut  codd. :  vel  Goerens, 

*  habuerunt  Kaiser  :  erint  codd. 

^  est  Reid  :  sit  codd. 

"  avefj.irb5L<jTos,    i.e.y    not    inconsi.->tent    with     some    other 
apparent  truth. 
604 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucuixus),  xxxiii. 

07  perception  are  non-existent.  What  wiW  happen  to 
the  sciences  ?  What  sciences  ?  the  ones  that  them- 
selves  confess  that  they  make  more  use  of  conjecture 
than  knowledge,  or  those  that  are  only  guided  by 
appearance,  and  are  not  possessed  of  that  method 
belonging  to  your  school  to  enable  them  to  dis- 
tinguish  what  is  true  from  what  is  false  ? 

"  But  the  two  outstanding  things  that  hold  your  suspenae 
case  together  are  the  following.  The  first  is  your  poJsibie,  ^ 
statement  that  it  is  impossible  for  anybody  to  assent 
to  nothing,  and  that  this  at  all  events  is  '  perspicu- 
ous.'  Seeing  that  Panaetius,  who  in  my  judgement 
at  all  events  is  almost  the  chief  of  the  Stoics,  says 
that  he  is  in  doubt  as  to  the  matter  which  all  the 
Stoics  beside  him  think  most  certain,  the  truth  of 
the  pronouncements  of  diviners,  of  auspices  and 
oracles,  of  dreams  and  soothsaying,  and  that  he 
restrains  himself  from  assent,  which  he  can  do  even 
about  things  that  his  own  teachers  held  to  be  certain, 
why  should  not  the  \nse  man  be  able  to  do  so  about 
everything  else  ?  Is  there  any  proposition  that  he 
can  either  reject  or  approve,  but  is  not  able  to  doubt  ? 
will  you  be  able  to  do  so  Mith  sorites  arguments  when 
you  wish,  but  he  not  be  able  to  call  a  similar  halt 
in  everything  else,  especially  as  he  is  able  to  follow 
mere  resemblance  to  truth  when  unhampered,"  with- 

,08  out  the   act  of  assent  ?     The   second  point  is  the 

assertion  of  your  school  that  no  action  as  regards  and  com- 
anything  is  possible  in  the  case  of  a  man  who  gives  ^^^^^  action. 
the  approval  of  his  assent  to  nothing  ;  for  in  the  first 
place  the  thing  must  be  seen,  and  that  includes 
assent,  for  the  Stoics  say  that  the  sensations  are 
themselves  acts  of  assent,  and  that  it  is  because  these 
are  foUowed  by  an  impulse  of  appetition  that  action 
X  605 


CICERO 

autem  omnia  si  visa  tollantm'.  XXXIV.  Hac  de  re 
in  utramque  partem  et  dicta  sunt  et  scripta  multa, 
sed  brevi  res  potest  tota  confici.  Ego  enim  etsi 
maximam  actionem  puto  repugnare  visis,  obsistere 
opinionibus,  adsensus  lubricos  sustinere,  credoque 
Clitomacho  ita  scribenti,  Herculi  quendam  laborem 
exanclatum  a  Carneade,  quod,  ut  feram  et  immanem 
beluam,  sic  ex  animis  nostris  adsensionem,  id  est 
opinationem  et  temeritatem,  extraxisset,  tamen  (ut 
ea  pars  defensionis  relinquatur)  quid  impediet  ac- 
tionem  eius  qui  probabilia  sequitur  nuUa  re  impedi- 
109  ente  ?  '  Hoc,'  inquit,  *  ipsum  impediet,  quod  statuet 
ne  id  quidem  quod  probet  posse  percipi.'  lam  istuc 
te  quoque  impediet  in  navigando,  in  conserendo,  in 
uxore  ducenda,  in  liberis  procreandis,  plurimisque  in 
rebus  in  quibus  nihil  sequere  praeter  probabile. 

"  Et  tamen  illud  usitatum  et  saepe  repudiatum  re- 
fers,  non  ut  Antipater  sed  ut  ais  *  pressius ' ;  nam  Anti- 
patrum  reprehensum  quod  diceret  consentaneum  esse 
ei  qui  adfirmaret  nihil  posse  comprehendi  id  ipsum 
saltem  dicere  posse  comprendi.  Quod  ipsi  Antiocho 
pingue  videbatur  et  sibi  ipsum  contrarium  ;  non 
enim  potest  convenienter  dici  nihil  comprendi  posse 
si  quicquam  comprendi  posse  dicatur.  Illo  modo 
potius  putat  urguendum  fuisse  Carneadem :  cum 
sapientis  nullum  decretum  esse  posset  nisi  compren- 


*  i.e.t  the  activity  of  reason.  *  §  29. 

606 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxxiii. — xxxiv. 

foUows,  whereas  if  sense-presentations  are  done  away 
with,  everything  is  done  away  with.  XXXIV.  On 
this  matter  a  great  deal  has  been  said  and  written 
both  for  and  against,  but  the  whole  subject  can  be 
dealt  with  briefly.  For  even  although  my  own 
opinion  is  that  the  highest  form  of  activity  <*  wars 
against  sense-presentations,  withstands  opinions, 
holds  back  acts  of  assent  on  their  shppery  slope,  and 
although  I  agree  with  CHtomachus  when  he  writes 
that  Carneades  really  did  accomphsh  an  almost  Her- 
culean  labour  in  ridding  our  minds  of  that  fierce  w\\d 
beast,  the  act  of  assent,  that  is  of  mere  opinion  and 
hasty  thinking,  nevertheless  (to  abandon  that  section 
of  the  defence)  what  will  hamper  the  activity  of  the 
man  that  foUows  probabilities  when  nothing  hampers  ? 
9  '  The  very  fact,'  says  he, '  that  he  will  decide  that  not 
even  what  he  approves  can  be  perceived,  will  hamper 
him.'  Well  then,  that  same  fact  will  hamper  you 
also  in  going  a  voyage,  in  sowing  a  crop,  in  marrying 
a  wife,  in  begetting  a  family,  in  ever  so  many  things 
in  which  you  will  be  following  nothing  but  probabiUty. 
"  And  putting  that  aside,  you  repeat  the  old, 
famiUar  and  oft-rejected  argument,  not  in  Anti- 
pater's  manner,  but  as  you  say  *  coming  more  to 
grips  with  it  '  ^  ;  for  Antipater,  you  tell  us,  was  cen- 
sured  for  saying  that  it  was  consistent  for  one  who 
asserted  that  nothing  could  be  grasped  to  say  that 
that  assertion  itself  could  be  grasped.  This  seemed 
stupid  and  self-contradictory  even  to  Antiochus  ;  for 
it  cannot  consistently  be  said  that  nothing  can  be 
grasped  if  anything  is  said  to  be  able  to  be  grasped. 
The  way  in  which  Antiochus  thinks  Carneades  should 
preferably  have  been  attacked  was  this — to  make 
him  admit  that,  since  the  wise  man  can  have  no 

607 


CICERO 

sum  perceptum  cognitum,  ut  hoc  ipsum  decretum 
quidem,!  decretum^  sapientis  esse  nihil  posse  percipi, 
fateretur  esse  perceptum.  Proinde  quasi  sapiens 
nullum  aHud  decretum  habeat  et  sine  decretis  vitam 

110  agere  possit !  Sed  ut  illa  habet  probabiha  non  per- 
cepta,  sic  hoc  ipsum,  nihil  posse  percipi  ;  nam  si  in 
hoc  haberet  cognitionis  notam,  eadem  uteretur  in 
ceteris  ;  quam  quoniam  non  habet,  utitur  proba- 
biUbus.  Itaque  non  metuit  ne  confundere  omnia 
videatur  et  incerta  reddere.  Non  enim,  quem  ad 
modum  si  quaesitum  ex  eo  sit  stellarum  numerus  par 
an  impar  sit,  item  si  de  officio  multisque  aUis  de  rebus 
in  quibus  versatus  exercitatusque  sit,  nescire  se  dicat ; 
in  incertis  enim  nihil  est  probabile,  in  quibus  autem 
est,  in  iis  non  deerit  sapienti  nec  quid  faciat  nec 

111  quid  respondeat.  Ne  illam  quidem  praetermisisti, 
Luculle,  reprehensionem  Antiochi — nec  mirum,  in 
primis  enim  est  nobilis — qua  solebat  dicere  Antiochus 
Philonem  maxime  perturbatum :  cum  enim  sumere- 
tur  unum,  esse  quaedam  falsa  visa,  alterum,  nihil  ea 
differre  a  veris,  non  attendere  superius  illud  ea  re  a 
se  esse  concessum  quod  videretur  esse  quaedam  in 
visis  diflPerentia,  eam  tolH  altero  quo  neget  visa  a 

*  quidem  :  quid,  quod,  qui  codd.  nonnuUi. 
^  decretum  inseruU  ed. 

»  §  27.  "  %  44. 

608 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxxiv. 

*  decision  '  ^  that  is  not  grasped  and  perceived  and 
known,  therefore  this  particular  dccision  itself,  that  it 
is  the  decision  of  the  wise  man  that  nothing  can  be 
perceived,  is  perceived.  Just  as  if  the  wise  man  held 
no  other  decision  and  could  conduct  his  hfe  \nthout 

0  dccisions  !     On  the  contrary,  he  holds  tliis  particular  Truth  is 
opinion,  that  nothing  can  be  peroeived,  in  just  the  Jbirbuf*^ 
same  way  as  he  holds  the  '  probable  '  but  not  '  per-  not'non- 
ceived  '  views  that  have  been  mentioned  ;   for  if  he  ^^'^'  ^"  * 
had  a  mark  of  knowledge  in  this  case,  he  would 
employ  the  same  mark  in  all  other  cases,  but  since 

lie  has  not  got  it,  he  employs  probabiUties.  Thus  he 
is  not  afraid  lest  he  may  appear  to  throw  everything 
into  confusion  and  make  everything  uncertain.  For 
if  a  question  be  put  to  him  about  duty  or  about  a 
number  of  other  matters  in  which  practice  has  made 
him  an  expert,  he  would  not  reply  in  tiie  same  way 
as  he  would  if  questioned  as  to  whether  the  number 
of  the  stars  is  even  or  odd,  and  say  that  he  did  not 
know  ;  for  in  things  uncertain  there  is  nothing 
probable,  but  in  things  where  there  is  probabihty  the 
%\1se  man  will  not  be  at  a  loss  eithcr  what  to  do  or 

1  what  to  answer.  Nor  yet,  Lucullus,  did  you  pass 
over  the  criticism  made  by  Antiochus  ^ — and  no 
^\onder,  as  it  is  one  of  the  most  famous — which 
Antiochus  used  to  say  Philo  had  found  most  up- 
setting  :  it  was  that  when  the  assumption  was  made, 
first,  that  there  were  some  false  presentations,  and 
secondly,  that  they  differed  in  no  respect  from  true 
ones,  Philo  failed  to  notice  that  whereas  he  had  ad- 
mitted  the  former  proposition  on  the  strength  of  the 
apparent  existence  of  a  certain  diiference  among 
presentations,  this  fact  was  refuted  by  the  latter 
proposition,  his  denial  that  true  presentations  differ 

boy 


CICERO 

falsis  vera  difFerre  ;  nihil  tam  repugnare.  Id  ita 
esset  si  nos  verum  omnino  tolleremus  ;  non  facimus, 
nam  tam  vera  quam  falsa  cemimus.  Sed  probandi 
species  est,  percipiendi  signum  nuUum  habemus. 

112  XXXV.  "  Ac  mihi  videor  nimis  etiam  nunc  agere 
ieiune.  Cimi  sit  enim  campus  in  quo  exsultare 
possit  oratio,  cur  eam  tantas  in  angustias  et  Stoi- 
corum  dumeta  compelHmus  ?  Si  enim  mihi  cum 
Peripatetico  res  esset,  qui  id  percipi  posse  diceret 
*  quod  impressum  esset  e  vero,'  neque  adhiberet^ 
illam  magnam  accessionem,  *  quo  modo  imprimi  non 
posset  e  falso,'  cum  simpHci  homine  simpHciter 
agerem  nec  magno  opere  contenderem,  atque  etiam 
si,  cum  ego  nihil  dicerem  posse  comprendi,  diceret 
ille  sapientem  interdum  opinari,  non  repugnarem, 
praesertim  ne  Cameade  quidem  huic  loco  valde  re- 

113  pugnante  :  nunc  quid  facere  possum  ?  Quaero 
enim  quid  sit  quod  comprendi  possit ;  respondet 
mihi  non  Aristoteles  aut  Theophrastus,  ne  Xeno- 
crates  quidem  aut  Polemo,  sed  qui  minor  est,  *  tale 
verimi  quale  falsum  esse  non  possit.'  Nihil  eius 
modi  invenio  ;  itaque  incognito  nimirum  adsentiar, 
id  est  opinabor.  Hoc  mihi  et  Peripatetici  et  vetus 
Academia  concedit,  vos  negatis,  Antiochus  in  primis, 
qui  me  valde  movet,  vel  quod  amavi  hominem  sicut 

^  Reid  :  aderere,  adhaerere  etc.  codd. 


"  Species •=<i)avTa<7ia,  *  i.tf.,  Antiochus. 

610 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxxiv. — xxxv. 

from  false  ones  ;  and  that  no  procedure  could  be 
more  inconsistent.  This  would  hold  good  if  we 
abohshed  truth  altogether  ;  but  we  do  not,  for  we 
observe  some  things  that  are  true  just  as  we  observe 
some  that  are  false.  But  there  is  *  appearance  '  ° 
as  a  basis  of  approval,  whereas  we  have  no  mark  as  a 
basis  of  perception. 

12  XXXV.  "  And  even  now  I  feel  that  my  procedure  (8)The 

is  too  cramped.   For  when  there  is  a  wide  field in  which  JjsaSee^^' 
eloquence  might  expatiate,  why  do  we  drive  it  into  among 
such  confined  spaces  and  into  the  briary  thickets  of    ^"^^  ^^ 
the  Stoics  ?     If  I  were  deahng  with  a  Peripatetic, 
who  would  say  that  we  can  perceive  '  an  impression 
formed  from  a  true  object,'  without  adding  the  im- 
portant  quaUfication  *  in  a  manner  in  which  it  could 
not  be  formed  from  a  false  one,'  I  would  meet  his 
frankness  with  frankness  and  would  not  labour  to 
join  issue  with  him,  and  if,  when  I  said  that  nothing 
can  be  grasped,  he  said  that  the  wise  man  sometime> 
forms  an  opinion,  I  would  even  refrain  from  combating 
him,  especially  as  even  Carneades  does  not  vehe- 
mently  combat  this  position  ;  but  as  it  is  what  can  I 

13  do  .'*  For  I  put  the  question  what  there  is  that  can 
be  grasped  ;  I  receive  the  answer,  not  from  Aristotle 
or  Theophrastus,  not  even  from  Xenocrates  or 
Polemo,  but  from  a  smaller  person,^  '  A  true  pre- 
sentation  of  such  a  sort  that  there  cannot  be  a  false 
one  of  the  same  sort.'  I  do  not  encounter  any  such 
presentation  ;  and  accordingly  I  shall  no  doubt  assent 
to  something  not  really  known,  that  is,  I  shall  hold 
an  opinion.  This  both  the  Peripatetics  and  the  Old 
Academy  grant  me,  but  your  school  denies  it,  and 
Antiochus  does  so  first  and  foremost,  who  influences 
me  strongly,  either  because  I  loved  the  man  as  he 

611 


CICERO 

illr  me,  vel  quod  ita  iudico,  politissimum  et  acutissi* 
ruum  ommuni  Rostrae  memoriae  philosophorum.  A 
quo  primum  quaero  quo  tandem  modo  sit  eius  Aca- 
demiae  cuius  esse  se  profiteatur.  Ut  omittam  alia, 
haec  duo  de  quibus  agitur  quis  umquam  dixit  aut 
veteris  Academiae  aut  Peripateticorum,  vel  id  solum 
percipi  posse  quod  esset  verum  tale  quale  falsum  esse 
non  posset,  vel  sapientem  nihil  opinari  ?  Certe 
nemo  :  horum  neutrum  ante  Zenonem  magno  opere 
defensum  est.  Ego  tamen  utrumque  venim  puto, 
nec  dico  temporis  causa  sed  ita  plane  probo. 

114  XXXVI.  "  Illud  ferre  non  possum  :  tu  cum  me  in- 
cognito  adsentiri  vetes  idque  turpissimum  esse  dicas 
et  plenissimum  temeritatis,  tantum  tibi  adioges  ut 
exponas  disciplinam  sapientiae,  naturam  rerum  om- 
nium  evolvas,  mores  fingas,  fines  bonorum  malorum- 
que  constituas,  officia  discribas,  quam  vitam  ingrediar 
definias,  idemque  etiam  disputandi  et  intellegendi 
iudicium  dicas  te  et  artificium  traditurum,  perficies  ut 
ego  ista  innumerabilia  complectens  nusquam  labar, 
nihil  opiner  ?  Quae  tandem  ea  est  disciplina  ad 
quam  me  deducas  si  ab  hac  abstraxeris  ?  vereor 
ne  subadroganter  facias  si  dixeris  tuam,  atqui  ita 
dieas  necesse  est.     Neque  vero  tu  solus  sed  ad  suam 

115  quisque  rapiet.  Age,  restitero  Peripateticis,  qui  sibi 
612 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxxv. — xxxvi. 

did  me,  or  becaiise  I  judge  him  as  the  most  polished 
and  the  most  acute  of  all  the  philosophers  of  our  time. 
The  first  question  that  I  put  to  him  is,  how  pray  can 
hc  belong  to  that  Acadcmy  to  which  he  professes  to 
bclong  ?  To  omit  other  points,  what  member  of  the 
Old  Academy  or  of  the  Peripatetic  school  ever  made 
these  two  statements  that  we  are  deahng  with — 
either  that  the  only  thing  that  can  be  perceived  is  a 
true  presentation  of  such  a  sort  that  there  could  not 
be  a  false  one  of  the  same  sort,  or  that  a  wise  man 
never  holds  an  opinion  ?  No  one,  without  a  doubt ; 
neither  of  these  propositions  was  mueh  upheld  before 
Zeno.  I  nevertheless  think  both  of  them  true,  and  I 
do  not  say  so  just  to  suit  the  occasion,  but  it  is  my 
dehberate  judgement. 

14  XXXVI.  "  One  thing  I  cannot  put  up  ^vith  :  when  Antiochus 
you  forbid  me  to  assent  to  something  that  I  do  not  i^efragabia 
know  and  say  that  this  is  most  disgraceful  and  reeks 

with  rashness,  but  take  so  much  upon  yourself  as  to 
set  out  a  system  of  philosophy,  to  unfold  a  complete 
natural  science,  to  mould  our  ethics  and  estabhsh  a 
theory  of  the  chief  good  and  evil  and  map  out  our 
duties  and  prescribe  the  career  that  I  am  to  embark 
upon,  and  also  actually  profess  to  be  ready  to  impart 
a  criterion  and  scientific  system  of  dialectic  and  logic, 
will  you  secure  that  I  on  my  side  when  embracing  all 
your  countless  doctrines  shall  never  make  a  shp, 
never  hold  a  mere  opinion  ?  What  system  pray  is 
there  for  you  to  convert  me  to  if  you  can  withdraw  me 
from  this  one  ?  I  am  afraid  you  may  be  doing  rather 
a  presumptuous  thing  if  you  say  your  own  system, 
yet  all  the  same  you  are  bound  to  say  so.  Nor  indeed 
will  you  be  alone,  but  everybody  will  hurry  me  into 

15  his  own  system.     Come,  suppose  I  stand  out  against 

()13 


CICERO 

cum  oratoribus  cognationem  esse,  qui  claros  viros 
a  se  instructos  dicant  rem  publicam  saepe  rexisse, 
sustinuero  Epicureos,  tot  meos  familiares,  tam  bonos, 
tam  inter  se  amantes  viros  :  Diodoto  quid  faeiam 
Stoico,  quem  a  puero  audivi,  qui  mecum  vivit  tot 
annos,  qui  habitat  apud  me,  quem  et  admiror  et 
diligo,  qui  ista  Antiochi^  contemnit  ?  *  Nostra,'  in- 
quies,  *  sola  vera  sunt.'  Certe  sola,  si  vera,  plura 
enim  vera  discrepantia  esse  non  possunt.  Utrum 
igitur  nos  impudentes  qui  labi  nohmus,^  an  illi  ad- 
rogantes  qui  sibi  persuaserint  scire  se  solos  omnia  ? 
'  Non  me  quidem,'  inquit,  '  sed  sapientem  dico  scire.* 
Optime  !  nempe  ista  scire  quae  sunt  in  tua  discipUna. 
Hoc  primum  quale  est,  a  non  sapiente  exphcari 
sapientiam  ?  vSed  discedamus  a  nobismet  ipsis,  de 
sapiente  loquamur,  de  quo  ut  saepe  iam  dixi  omnis 
haec  quaestio  est. 
116  **  In  tres  igitur  partes  et  a  plerisque  et  a  vobismet 
ipsis  distributa  sapientia  est.  Primum  ergo,  si  placet, 
quae  de  natura  rerum  sint  quaesita  videamus.  At^ 
illud  ante  :  estne  quisquam  tanto  inflatus  errore  ut 
sibi  se  illa  scire  persuaserit  ?  Non  quaero  rationes 
eas  quae  ex  coniectura  pendent,  quae  disputationibus 
huc  et  illuc  trahuntur,  nullam  adhibent  persuadendi 
necessitatem ;    geometrae   provideant,   qui  se   pro- 

*  Antiochi  ?  Reid  (c/.  98) :  Antiochia  codd. 

*  nolumus  codd.  plerique. 

'  at  Reid  :  velut  codd. 

614 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxx\i. 

the  Peripatetics,  who  say  that  they  are  akin  to  the 
orators  and  that  famous  men  equipped  with  their 
teaching  have  often  governed  the  state.  and  suppose 
I  resist  the  Epicureans,  that  crowd  of  friends  of  my 
own,  so  worthy  and  so  afFectionate  a  set  of  men  : 
what  shall  I  do  ^\ith  Diodotus  the  Stoic,  whose  pupil 
I  have  been  from  a  boy,  who  has  been  my  associate 
for  so  many  years,  who  Hves  in  my  house,  whom  I 
both  admire  and  love,  and  who  despises  the  doctrines 
of  Antiochus  that  you  are  putting  forward  ?  '  Our 
doctrines,'  you  will  say,  *  are  the  only  true  ones.* 
If  they  are  true,  certainly  they  are  the  only  true 
ones,  for  there  cannot  be  several  true  systems  dis- 
agreeing  \Wth  one  another.  Then  is  it  we  that  are 
shameless,  who  do  not  wish  to  make  a  slip,  or  they 
presumptuous,  who  have  persuaded  themselves  that 
they  alone  know  everything  ?  *  I  don't  say  that  I 
myself  know,'  says  he,  '  but  that  the  wise  man 
knows.*  Excellent !  no  doubt  you  mean  '  knows  the 
doctrines  that  are  in  your  system.*  To  begin  \vith, 
what  are  we  to  think  of  this — wisdom  being  unfolded 
by  a  man  that  is  not  wise  ?  But  let  us  leave  our- 
selves  and  speak  about  the  wise  man,  on  whom  all 
this  inquiry  turns,  as  I  have  often  said  already. 
116  "  Wisdom  then  is  divided  by  your  own  school,  as  it  (8a)  The 
is  also  by  most  philosophers,  into  three  parts.  First  disag?-ee-^^^ 
therefore,  if  you  agree,  let  us  see  what  investigations  mentas 
have  been  made  about  natural  science.  But  one  ^°  ^^^^' 
thing  first  :  is  there  anybody  so  puffed  up  with  error 
as  to  have  persuaded  himself  that  he  knows  this 
subject?  I  am  not  asking  about  the  theories  that 
depend  upon  conjecture,  that  are  dragged  to  and  fro 
in  debate,  employing  no  convincing  cogency  ;  let 
the  geometricians  see  to  that,  whose  claim  is  that 

615 


CICERO 

fitentur  non  persuadere  sed  cogere,  et  qui  omnia 
vobis  quae  describunt  probant.  Non  quaero  ex 
his  illa  initia  mathematicorum  quibus  non  concessis 
digitum  progredi  non  possunt,  punctum  esse  quod 
magnitudinem  nullam  habeat,  extremitatem  et  quasi 
Ubramentum  in  quo  nulla  omnino  crassitudo  sit, 
lineamentum  sine  ulla  latitudine.^  Haec  cum  vera 
esse  concessero,  si  adigam  ius  iurandum  sapientem, 
nec  prius  quam  Archimedes  eo  inspectante  rationes 
omnes  descripserit  eas  quibus  efficitur  multis  partibus 
solem  maiorem  esse  quam  terram,  iuraturum  putas  ? 
Si  fecerit,  solem  ipsum  quem  deum  censet  esse  con- 
117  tempserit.  Quodsi  geometricis  rationibus  non  est 
crediturus,  quae  vim  adferunt  in  docendo.  vos  ipsi  ut 
dicitis,  ne  ille  longe  aberit  ut  argumentis  credat  philo- 
sophorum  ;  aut  si  est  crediturus,  quoriun  potissimum  ? 
omnia^  enim  physicorum  Ucet  explicare,  sed  longum 
est ;  quaero  tamen  quem  sequatur.  Finge  ahquem 
nunc  fieri  sapientem,  nondum  esse  ;  quam  potissi- 
mum  sententiam  ehget  et  disciphnam  ?  etsi  quam- 
cumque  ehget,  insipiens  ehget  ;  sed  sit  ingenio 
divino,  quem  unum  e  physicis  potissimum  probabit  ? 
nec  plus  uno  poterit.  Non  persequor  quaestiones 
infinitas  ;  tantum  de  principiis  rerum  e  quibus  omnia 

^  latitudine  Reid  :  latitudine  carentem  codd. 
^  somniai  ?  Reid. 

'^  Libramentum,  '  evenness,'  applied  primarily  to  the 
scales  of  a  balance ;  quasi  marks  it  as  here  used  to  explain 
extremitatem^  which  is  a  translation  of  Wpas  {i.e.  irepai 
adofiaTos^  the  boundary  of  a  sohd,  viz.  a  surface,  irKpdveia). 

6\6 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxxvi. 

they  do  not  persuade  but  convince,  and  who  prove 
all  their  propositions  by  their  diagrams  to  the  satis- 
facticn  of  your  school.  I  am  not  asking  these  people 
about  those  first  principles  of  mathematics  which 
must  be  granted  before  they  are  able  to  advance 
an  inch — that  a  point  is  a  thing  witliout  magnitude, 
that  a  *  boundary  '  or  surface  °  is  a  thing  entirely 
devoid  of  thickness,  a  hne  a  thing  without  any 
breadth.  When  I  have  admitted  the  correctness  of 
these  definitions,  if  I  put  the  wise  man  on  his  oath, 
and  not  until  Archimedes  has  first,  with  him  looking 
on,  drawn  all  the  diagrams  proving  that  the  sun  is 
many  times  as  large  as  the  earth,  do  you  think  that 
he  will  take  the  oath  ?  If  he  does,  he  will  have  showTi 
contempt  for  the  sun  itself  which  he  deems  is  a 
117  god.  But  if  he  is  going  to  refuse  credence  to  the 
methods  of  geometry,  w^hich  in  their  teaching  exer- 
cise  a  compelhng  force,  as  your  school  itself  asserts, 
surely  he  for  his  part  will  be  far  from  beheving 
the  proofs  of  the  philosophers  ;  or  else,  if  he  does 
beheve  them,  which  schooVs  proofs  will  he  choose  ? 
for  one  might  set  out  all  the  systems  of  the  natural 
philosophers,  but  it  would  be  a  long  story  :  all  the 
same,  I  want  to  know  which  philosopher  he  follows. 
Imagine  that  somebody  is  becoming  a  wise  man  now, 
but  is  not  one  yet  ;  what  doctrine  or  system  will  he 
select  to  adopt  ?  although  whichever  one  he  does 
select,  the  selection  will  be  made  by  a  man  not 
wise  ;  but  suppose  he  be  an  inspired  genius,  which 
single  one  among  the  natural  philosophers  will  he 
choose  to  approve  ?  more  than  one  he  will  not  be 
able  to.  I  am  not  asking  about  problems  of  un- 
limited  vagueness  :  let  us  merely  consider  what 
authority  he  will  approve  in  respect  of  the  elements 

617 


CICERO 

constant    videamus    quem    probet,   est    enim    inter 

magnos  homines  summa  dissensio. 

118      XXXVII.  "  Princeps  Thales,  unus  e  septem  cui 

sex  rehquos  concessisse  primas  ferunt,  ex  aqua  dixit 

constare  omnia.     At  hoc  Anaximandro  populari  et 

sodali  suo  non  persuasit ;  is  enim  infinitatem  naturae 

dixit    esse    e    qua    omnia    gignerentur.      Post    eius 

auditor  Anaximenes  infinitum  aera,  sed  ea  quae  ex 

eo  orerentur  definita ;  gigni  autem  terram,  aquam, 

ignem,  tum  ex  his  omnia.     Anaxagoras  materiam  in- 

finitam,  sed  ex  ea  particulas  similes  inter  se,  minutas  ; 

eas  primum  confusas,  postea  in  ordinem  adductas 

mente  divina.     Xenophanes,  paulo  etiam  antiquior, 

unum  esse  omnia  neque  id  esse  mutabile,  et  id  esse 

deum,  neque  natum  umquam  et  sempitemimi,  con- 

globata  figura  ;  Parmenides  ignem  qui  moveat  terram 

quae  ab  eo  formetur  ;    Leucippus  plenum  et  inane  ; 

Democritus  huic  in  hoc  similis,  uberior  in  ceteris  ; 

Empedocles  haec  pervolgata  et  nota  quattuor  ;  Hera- 

clitus  ignem ;    Mehssus   hoc    quod   esset   infinitum 

et  immutabile  et  fuisse  semper  et  fore.     Plato  ex 

materia  in  se  omnia  recipiente  mundum  factum  esse 

censet  a  deo  sempiternum.     Pythagorei  ex  numeris 

et  mathematicorum  initiis  proficisci  volunt  omnia. 

Ex  his  eUget  vester  sapiens  unum  ahquem,  credo, 

"  Omnia=T6  irav.  •»  See  i.  28  note  d. 

618 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxxvi. — xxxvii. 

of  which  the  universe^  consists,  for  it  is  a  subject 
extremely  debated  among  the  great. 
118  XXXVII.  "  At  the  head  of  the  hst  Thales,  the  one  ^^^^V^^' 
of  the  Seven  to  whom  the  remaining  six  are  stated  to  disaRre©. 
have  unanimously  yielded  the  first  place,  said  that  "^®"^* 
all  things  are  made  of  water.  But  in  this  he  did  not 
carry  conviction  with  his  fellow-citizen  and  associate 
Anaximander  ;  Anaximander  said  that  there  exists 
an  infinity  of  substance  ^  from  which  the  universe  was 
engendered.  Afterwards  his  pupil  Anaximenes  held 
that  air  is  infinite,  but  the  things  that  spring  from  it 
finite,  and  that  earth,  water  and  fire  are  engendered, 
and  then  the  universe  of  things  out  of  these.  Anax- 
agoras  held  that  matter  is  infinite,  but  that  out  of 
it  have  come  minute  particles  entirely  ahke,  which 
were  at  first  in  a  state  of  medley  but  were  afterwards 
reduced  to  order  by  a  divine  mind.  Xenophanes  at  a 
somewhat  earlier  date  said  that  the  universe  is  one, 
and  that  this  is  unchanging,  and  is  god,  and  that  it 
never  came  into  being  but  has  existed  for  ever,  of  a 
spherical  shape  ;  Parmenides  said  that  the  primary 
element  is  fire,  which  imparts  motion  to  the  earth 
that  receives  from  it  its  conformation  ;  Leucippus's 
elements  were  solid  matter  and  empty  space ; 
Democritus  resembled  him  in  this  but  was  more 
expansive  in  the  rest  of  his  doctrines  ;  Empedocles 
taught  the  four  ordinary  elements  that  we  know  ; 
Herachtus,  fire  ;  Mehssus,  that  the  present  infinite 
and  unchangeable  universe  has  existed  and  -vvill  exist 
always.  Plato  holds  the  view  that  the  world  was  made 
by  god  out  of  the  all-containing  substance,  to  last 
for  ever.  The  Pythagoreans  hold  that  the  universe 
originates  out  of  numbers  and  the  first  principles  of 
the  mathematicians.     From  these  teachers  your  wise 

619 


CICERO 

quem   sequatur  :   ceteri  tot  viri    et  tanti  repudiati 

119  ab  eo  condemnatique  discedent.  Quamcumque  vero 
sententiam  probaverit,  eam  sic  animo  comprensam 
habebit  ut  ea  quae  sensibus,  nec  magis  adprobabit 
nunc  lucere  quam,  quoniam  Stoicus  est,  hunc  mun- 
dum  esse  sapientem,  habere  mentem  quae  et  se  et 
ipsum  fabricata  sit  et  omnia  moderetur  moveat  regat. 
Erit  ei  persuasum  etiam  solem  lunam  stellas  omnes 
teiTam  mare  deos  esse,  quod  quaedam  animahs  in- 
tellegentia  per  omnia  ea  permanet  et  transeat ;  fore 
tamen  aliquando  ut  omnis  hic  mundus  ardore  de- 
flagret.  XXXVIII.  Sint  ista  vera  (\ddes  enim  iam  me 
fateri  aliquid  esse  veri),  comprendi  ea  tamen  et  per- 
cipi  nego.  Cum  enim  tuus  iste  Stoicus  sapiens  sylla- 
batim  tibi  ista  dixerit,  veniet  flumen  orationis  aureum 
fundens  Aristoteles  qui  illum  desipere  dicat ;  neque 
enim  ortum  esse  umquam  mundum  quod  nulla  fuerit 
novo  consilio  inito  tam  praeclari  operis  inceptio,  et  ita 
esse  eum  undique  aptum  ut  nulla  vis  tantos  queat 
motus  mutationemque  mohri.  nulla  senectus  diutur- 
nitate  temporum  exsistere  ut  hic  ornatus  umquam 
dilapsus  occidat.  Tibi  hoc  repudiare,  illud  autem 
superius  sicut  caput  et  famam  tuam  defendere 
necesse  erit,  cum^  mihi  ne  ut  dubitem  quidem  re- 

120  linquatur.     Ut  omittam  levitatem  temere  adsentien- 

^  cum  inseruit  Goei'ims. 

"  Qua(dam    marks    a   translation    of  some    phrase    like 
Diog.  vii.  14-7  debv  dk  elvat  ^i2ov  dOdvaTOV  XoyiKOV, 

'  A  rendering  of  the  two  meanings  of  Kivi}(ni. 
620 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxxvii. — xxxviii. 

man  ^vill  doubtless  select  some  single  master  to  follow, 
Nvliile  the  numerous  residue  of  men  of  such  distinction 

119  Nvill  depart  rejected  and  condemned  by  him.  But 
whatever  opinion  he  approves,  he  will  hold  it  in  as  firm 
a  mental  grasp  as  he  holds  the  presentations  that  he 
grasps  by  the  senses,  and  he  will  not  be  more  firmly 
convinced  that  it  is  now  dayhirht  than  he  is  convinced, 
being  a  Stoic,  that  this  world  is  wise  and  is  possessed 
of  an  inteUigence  that  constructed  both  itself  and 
the  world,  and  that  controls,  moves  and  rules  the 
universe.  He  will  also  be  convinced  that  the  sun  and 
moon  and  all  the  stars  and  the  earth  and  sea  are  gods, 
because  a  '  vital  intelhgence  '  °  permeates  and  passes 
through  them  all  ;  but  that  nevertheless  a  time  will 
come  when  all  this  world  will  be  burnt  out  with 
heat.  XXXVIII.  Suppose  these  facts  of  yours  are 
true  (for  you  see  now  that  I  do  admit  the  existence 
of  some  truth),  nevertheless  I  deny  that  they  are 
*  grasped  '  and  perceived.  For  when  your  Stoic  wise 
man  aforesaid  has  told  you  those  facts  one  syllable 
at  a  time,  in  yn\\  come  Aristotle,  pouring  forth  a 
golden  stream  of  eloquence,  to  declare  that  he  is 
doting,  since  the  world  never  had  a  beginning,  be- 
cause  there  never  can  have  been  a  commencement, 
on  new  and  original  hnes,  of  so  glorious  a  structure, 
and  since  it  is  so  compactly  framed  on  every  side 
that  no  force  could  brino;  about  such  miohtv  move- 
ments  of  mutation,*^  no  old  age  arise  from  the  long 
lapse  of  years  to  cause  this  ordered  cosmos  ever  to 
perish  in  dissolution.  For  you  it  will  be  obhgatory 
to  spurn  this  view,  and  to  defend  the  former  one  as 
you  would  your  hfe  and  honour,  while  to  me  it  is  not 

120  even  left  to  doubt.  Not  to  speak  of  the  frivohty  of 
those  who  assent  without  consideration,  how  valuable 

621 


CICERO 

tmm,  quanti  libertas  ipsa  aestimanda  est  non  mihi 
necesse  esse  quod  tibi  est !  Quaero^  cur  deus,  omnia 
nostra  causa  cum  faceret  (sic  enim  vultis),  tantam 
vim  natricum  viperarumque  fecerit,  cur  mortifera 
tam  multa  ac^  perniciosa  terra  marique  disperserit. 
Negatis  haec  tam  polite  tamque  subtiliter  effici 
potuisse  sine  divina  aUqua  sollertia  (cuius  quidem  vos 
maiestatem  deducitis  usque  ad  apium  formicarumque 
perfectionem,  ut  etiam  inter  deos  Myrmecides  aliquis 
minutorum  opusculorum  fabricator  fuisse  videatur) : 
121  negas  sine  deo  posse  quicquam.  Ecce  tibi  e  trans- 
verso  Lampsacenus  Strato,  qui  det  isti  deo  immuni- 
tatem  magni  quidem  muneris  (et^  cum  sacerdotes 
deorum  vacationem  habeant,  quanto  est  aequius 
habere  ipsos  deos  !)  ;  negat  opera  deorum  se  uti 
ad  fabricandum  mundum.  Quaecumque  sint,  docet 
omnia  efifecta  esse  natura,  nec  ut  ille  qui  ex*  asperis 
et  levibus  et  hamatis  uncinatisque  corporibus  con- 
creta  haec  esse  dicat  interiecto  inani — somnia  censet 
haec  esse  Democriti,  non  docentis  sed  optantis, — ipse 
autem  singulas  mundi  partes  persequens  quidquid 
aut  sit  aut  fiat  naturalibus  fieri  aut  factum  esse  docet 
ponderibus  et  motibus.  Ne  ille  et  deum  opere  magno 
Uberat  et  me  timore  !    quis  enim  potest,  cum  ex- 

^  quaero  inseruit  Reid. 

2  ac  inseruit  Reid. 

■  et  Goerens  :  sed  codd. 

*  ex  inseruit  Reid. 

*  A  Greek  artist  famous  for  his  microscopic  works,  doubt- 
less  chosen  here  because  of  his  appropriate  name  (or  nick- 
name) '  Son  of  an  Ant.' 
f)22 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxxviii. 

is  the  mere  freedom  of  my  not  being  faced  by 
the  same  obligation  as  you  are  !  I  ask  for  what 
reason  did  the  deity,  when  making  the  universe  for 
our  sakes  (for  that  is  the  view  of  your  school),  create 
so  vast  a  supply  of  water-snakes  and  vipers,  and  why 
did  he  scatter  so  many  death-bringing  and  destructive 
creatures  over  land  and  sea  ?  Your  school  asserts  that 
this  highly  finished  and  accurately  constructed  world 
of  ours  could  not  have  been  made  without  some  skill 
of  a  divine  nature  (indeed  it  brings  down  that  majestic 
deity  to  minutely  fabricating  the  bees  and  the 
ants,  so  that  we  must  even  suppose  that  the  hst  of 
gods  included  some  Myrmecides,"  an  artist  whose 
works  were  on  a  minutely  small  scale)  :  you  assert 
that  nothing  can  be  created  without  a  god.  Lo,  here 
you  have  Strato  of  Lampsacus  cutting  in,  bent  on 
bestowing  upon  your  deity  exemption  from  exertion 
on  any  extensive  scale  (and  seeing  that  the  priests 
of  the  gods  have  hohdays,  how  much  fairer  it  is 
that  the  gods  themselves  should  have  them  !)  ;  he 
declares  that  he  does  not  make  use  of  divine  activity 
for  constructing  the  world.  His  doctrine  is  that  all 
existing  things  of  whatever  sort  have  been  produced 
by  natural  causes,  although  he  does  not  follow  the 
master  who  says  that  this  world  of  ours  was  welded 
out  of  rough  and  smooth,  hook-shaped  or  crooked 
atoms  interspersed  with  void — he  judges  these  doc- 
trines  to  be  dreams  on  the  part  of  Democritus,  the 
talk  of  a  visionary,  not  of  a  teacher, — but  he  himself, 
reviewing  the  various  departments  of  the  universe 
one  by  one,  teaches  that  whatever  either  is  or  comes 
into  being  is  or  has  been  caused  by  natural  forces  of 
gravitation  and  motion.  Assuredly  he  frees  the  deity 
from  a  great  task,  and  also  me  from  alarm !  for  who 

623 


CICERO 

istimet  curari  se  a  deo,  non  et  dies  et  noctes  divinum 
numen  horrere  et  si  quid  adversi  acciderit  (quod  cui 
non  accidit  ?)  extimescere  ne  id  iure  evenerit  ?  Nec 
Stratoni  tamen  adsentior  nec  vero  tibi  ;  modo  hoc, 
modo  illud  probabilius  videtur. 

122  XXXIX.  "  Latent  ista  omnia,  Luculle,  crassis 
occultata  et  circumfusa  tenebris,  ut  nulla  acies 
humani  ingenii  tanta  sit  quae  penetrare  in  caelum, 
terram  intrare  possit.  Corpora  nostra  non  novimus, 
qui  sint  situs  partium,  quam  vim  quaeque  pars 
habeat  ignoramus  ;  itaque  medici  ipsi,  quorum 
intererat  ea  nosse,  aperuerunt  ut  viderentur,  nec  eo 
tamen  aiunt  empirici  notiora  esse  illa,  quia  possit 
fieri  ut  patefacta  et  detecta  mutentur.  Sed  ecquid 
nos  eodem  modo  rerum  naturas  persecare  aperire 
dividere  possumus,  ut  videamus  terra  penitusne 
defixa  sit  et  quasi  radicibus  suis  haereat  an  media 

123  pendeat  ?  Habitari  ait  Xenophanes  in  luna,  eamque 
esse  terram  multarum  urbium  et  montium  :  portenta 
videntur,  sed  tamen  nec  ille  qui  dixit  iurare  possit 
ita  se  rem  habere  neque  ego  non  ita.  Vos  etiam 
dicitis  esse  e  regione  nobis  in  contraria  parte  terrae 
qui  adversis  vestigiis  stent  contra  nostra  vestigia, 

624 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxxviii. — xxxix. 

holding  the  view  that  a  god  pays  heed  to  him  can 
avoid  shivering  with  dread  of  the  divine  power  all 
day  and  all  night  long,  and  if  any  disaster  happens 
to  him  (and  to  whom  does  it  not  ?)  being  thoroughly 
frightened  lest  it  be  a  judgement  upon  him  ?  All 
the  same  I  do  not  accept  the  view  of  Strato,  nor  yet 
yours  either  ;  at  one  moment  one  seems  the  more 
probable,  and  at  another  moment  the  other. 

12      XXXIX.  "AU   those   things   you   talk   about   are  The 
hidden,  Lucullus,  closely  concealed  and  enfolded  in  bodlefa^re 
thick  clouds  of  darkness,  so  that  no  human  intellect  outside 
has  a  sufficiently  powerful  sight  to  be  able  to  pene-     ^      ' 
trate  the  heaven  and  get  inside  the  earth.     We  do 
not  know  our  own  bodies,  we  are  ignorant  of  the 
positions  of  their  parts  and  their  several  functions ; 
and  accordingly  the  doctors  themselves,  being  con- 
cerned  to  know  the  structure  of  the  body,  have  cut 
it  open  to  bring  its  organs  into  view,  yet  nevertheless 
the  empiric  school  assert  that  this  has  not  increased 
our  knowledge  of  them,  because  it  is  possibly  the 
case  that  when  exposed  and  uncovered  they  change 
their  character.     But  is  it  at  all  within  our  power 
similarly  to  dissect  and  open  up  and  separate  the 
constituents  of  the  universe,  in  order  to  see  whether 
the  earth  is  firmly  fixed  deep  down  and  holds   so 
to  speak  by  its  own  roots,  or  hangs  suspended  at  the 

23  centre  ?  Xenophanes  says  that  the  moon  is  in- 
habited,  and  is  a  land  of  many  cities  and  mountains  : 
these  seem  marvellous  doctrines,  but  nevertheless 
I  am  no  more  able  to  swear  that  they  do  not  agree 
with  the  facts  than  their  author  could  swear  that 
they  do.  Your  school  even  says  that  there  are  people 
opposite  to  us  on  the  contrary  side  of  the  earth, 
standing  with  the  soles  of  their  feet  turned  in  the 

Cr25 


CICERO 

quos  antipodas  vocatis  :  cur  mihi  magis  suscensetis 
qui  ista  non  aspernor  quam  eis  qui  cum  audiunt 
desipere  vos  arbitrantur  ?  Hicetas  Syracosius,  ut  ait 
Theophrastus,  caelum  solem  lunam  stellas  supera 
denique  omnia  stare  censet  neque  praeter  terram 
rem  ullam  in  mundo  moveri,  quae  cum  circum  axem 
se  summa  celeritate  convertat  et  torqueat,  eadem  effici 
omnia  quae  si  stante  terra  caelum  moveretur  ;  atque 
hoc  etiam  Platonem  in  Timaeo  dicere  quidam  arbi- 
trantur,  sed  paulo  obscurius.  Quid  tu,  Epicure  ? 
loquere,  putas  solem  esse  tantulum  ?  ego  ne  bis^ 
quidem  tantum  !  Et  vos  ab  illo  inridemini  et  ipsi 
illum  \dcissim  eluditis.  Liber  igitur  a  tah  inrisione 
Socrates,  hber  Aristo  Chius,  qui  nihil  istorum  sciri 
124  putant^  posse.  Sed  redeo  ad  animum  et  corpus. 
Satisne  tandem  ea  nota  sunt  nobis,  quae  nervorum 
natura  sit,  quae  venarum  ?  tenemusne  quid  sit 
animus,  ubi  sit,  denique  sitne  an,  ut  Dicaearcho 
visum  est,  ne  sit  quidem  ullus  ?  si  est,  trisne  partes 
habeat,  ut  Platoni  placuit,  rationis  irae  cupicQtatis, 
an  simplex  unusque  sit  ?  si  simplex,  utrum  sit  ignis 
an  anima  an  sanguis  an,  ut  Xenocrates,  numerus' 
nullo  corpore  (quod  intellegi  quale  sit  vix  potest)  ? 
et   quidquid   est,   mortale   sit   an   aeternum  ?     nam 

*  Heid  :  ego  ne  vobis  codd. :  egone  ?  ne  bis  Lambinus. 

2  ed.  {cf.  §  74)  :  putat  codd. 

3  numerus  Bentley  :  mens  codd. 

*  Plato,  Timaeus  40  b. 

»  See  §  82. 

*  See  §  122,  where  however  the  mind  is  not  introduced. 

^  RepubliCf  e.g.,  439  d  fF.  t6  XoyiaTtKovt  to  dv/xoeides  and  rb 

€7rL6vfJ.7)TlK6v. 

*  Some    Stoics  said  fire,    others    warm    breath    {Tvevfj.a 
ivdeptxov).  f  Empedocles. 

626 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxxix. 

opposite  direction  to  ours,  whom  you  call  '  anti- 
podes  '  :  why  are  you  more  irritated  with  me  who 
do  not  scoff  at  these  doctrines  of  yours  than  with 
those  who  when  they  hear  them  think  you  are  out 
of  your  minds  ?  The  Syracusan  Hicetas,  as  Theo- 
phrastus  asserts,  holds  the  view  that  the  heaven,  sun, 
moon,  stars,  and  in  short  all  of  the  things  on  high  are 
stationary,  and  that  nothing  in  the  world  is  in  motion 
except  the  earth,  which  by  revolving  and  twisting 
round  its  axis  with  extreme  velocity  produces  all 
the  same  results  as  would  be  produced  if  the  earth 
were  stationary  and  the  heaven  in  motion  ;  and  this 
is  also  in  some  people's  opinion  the  doctrine  stated 
by  Plato  in  Timaeus,'^  but  a  little  more  obscurely. 
What  is  your  view,  Epicurus  ?  say,  do  you  really 
think  that  the  sun  is  as  small  as  it  appears  ?  for  my 
own  part  I  don't  think  it  is  twice  as  big  either  !  ^ 
Your  school  are  laughed  at  by  Epicurus,  and  you 
yourselves  also  in  your  turn  mock  at  him.  Mockery 
of  that  sort  therefore  does  not  touch  Socrates  and 
does  not  touch  Aristo  of  Chios,  who  think  that  none 
124  of  the  things  that  you  treat  of  can  be  known.  But  I  and  so  is 
return  to  the  mind  and  the  body.<^  Pray  are  we  of  t^e^^nd 
sufficiently  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  the  sinews 
and  the  veins  ?  do  we  grasp  what  mind  is,  where  it 
is,  and  in  fine  whether  it  exists,  or,  as  Dicaearchus 
held,  does  not  even  exist  at  all  ?  If  it  does,  do  we 
know  if  it  has  three  parts,  as  Plato  ^  held,  reason, 
passion  and  appetite,  or  is  a  simple  unity  ?  if  simple, 
whether  it  is  fire  or  breath  ^  or  blood,^  or,  as  Xeno- 
crates  said,  an  incorporeal  numerical  formula  (a 
thing  the  very  nature  of  which  is  almost  unintelU- 
gible)  ?  and  whatever  it  is,  whether  it  is  mortal  or 
everlasting  ?    for  many  arguments  are  put  forward 

627 


CICERO 

utramque  in  partem  multa  dicuntur.    Horum  aliquid 

vestro    sapienti    certum    videtur,    nostro    ne    quid 

maxime   quidem  probabile  sit  occurrit,  ita  sunt  in 

plerisque  contrariarum  rationum  paria  momenta. 

125      XL.  "  Sin   agis   verecundius    et   me   accusas   non 

quod  tuis  rationibus  non  adsentiar  sed  quod  nullis, 

vincam    animum    cuique    adsentiar    deligam — quem 

potissimum  ?    quem  ?     Deraocritum  :    semper  enim, 

ut    scitis,    studiosus    nobilitatis    fui.      Urgebor    iam 

omniimi  vestrum  convicio  :    '  Tune  aut  inane  quic- 

quam  putes  esse,  cum  ita  completa  et  conferta  sint 

omnia  ut  et  quidquid^  movebitur  corporeum^  cedat 

et  qua  quidque  cesserit  aliud  ilico  subsequatur  ?   aut 

atomos  ullas  e  quibus  quidquid  efficiatur  illarum  sit 

dissimillimum  ?     aut  sine   aliqua  mente   rem  uUam 

effici    posse    praeclaram  ?     et    cum   in    uno    mundo 

ornatus   hic   tam   sit   mirabilis,   innumerabilis   supra 

infra,    dextra    sinistra,    ante    post,    alios    dissimiles, 

alios  eiusdem  modi  mundos  esse  ?   et  ut  nos  nunc 

simus  ad  Baulos  Puteolosque  videamus,  sic  innumera- 

biles  paribus  in  locis  esse  eisdem  nominibus  honoribus 

rebus   gestis   ingeniis   formis   aetatibus,    eisdem   de 

rebus  disputantes  ?  et  si  nunc  aut  si  etiam  dormientes 

ah'quid  animo  videre  videamur,  imagines  extrinsecus 

in  animor  nostros  per  corpus  inrumpere  ?     Tu  vero 

ista    ne    asciveris    neve    fueris    commenticiis    rebus 

^  quidquid  Reid  :  quod  codd. 
2  corporeum  Reid  :  corporum  codd. 

"  Implying  that  J^emocritiis  holds  the  high  posilion  in 
philosophy  that  noblemen  hold  in  society, 
628 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xxxix.— xl. 

on  both  sides.  Some  part  of  these  matters  seems  to 
your  wise  man  to  be  certain,  but  ours  has  not  a  notion 
even  what  part  is  most  probable,  to  such  an  extent 
do  most  of  these  matters  contain  equal  reasons  for 
contrary  theories. 
125  XL.  "  If  on  the  other  hand  you  behave  with  greater 
modesty  and  charo;e  me  not  witli  not  agreeing  with 
your  arguments  but  with  not  agreeing  with  any,  I  will 
overcome  my  incUnation,  and  will  choose,  in  order 
to  agree  with  him — whom  for  preference  ?  whom  ? 
Democritus  :  for,  as  you  know  I  have  always  been  a 
devotee  of  rank  °  !  Now  I  sliall  be  assailed  with  up- 
braiding  by  all  of  you  :  '  Can  you  really  suppose  that 
any  such  thing  as  empty  void  exists,  when  the  uni- 
verse  is  so  completely  filled  and  packed  that  whenever 
a  bodily  object  is  set  in  motion  it  gives  place  and 
another  object  at  once  moves  into  the  place  that  it  has 
left  ?  or  that  any  atoms  exist  out  of  which  are  made 
things  that  are  all  entirely  unlike  them  ?  or  that  any- 
thing  splendid  can  be  produced  without  the  action  of 
some  mind  ?  and  that  when  one  world  contains  the 
marvellously  ordered  beauty  that  we  see,  there  exist 
above  it  and  below,  on  the  right  and  on  the  left,  in 
front  and  behind,  countless  other  worlds,  some  unhke 
it  and  others  of  the  same  sort  ?  and  that  just  as  we 
are  now  at  Bauh  and  have  a  view  of  Puteoli,  so  there 
are  innumerable  other  groups  of  people  with  the 
same  names  and  distinctions  and  records,  minds, 
appearances  and  ages,  discussing  the  same  subjects 
in  similar  places  ?  and  that,  if  now  or  if  even  when 
asleep  we  seem  to  see  something  with  the  mind,  it 
means  that  images  are  forcing  a  way  through  the 
body  into  our  minds  from  outside  ?  You  must  not 
accept  such  notions,  or  give   your  assent  to  mere 

629 


CICERO 

adsensus  :    nihil  sentire  est  melius  quam  tam  prava 

126  sentire  !  '  Non  ergo  id  agitur  ut  aliquid  adsensu 
meo  comprobem,  quod^  tu  vide  ne  impudenter 
etiam  postules,  non  solum  adroganter,  praesertim 
cum  ista  tua  mihi  ne  probabiha  quidem  videantur  ; 
nec  enim  divinationem  quam  probatis  ullam  esse 
arbitror,  fatumque  illud  esse^  quo  omnia  contineri 
dicitis  contemno — ne  exaedificatum  quidem  hunc 
mundum  divino  consilio  existimo  ;  atque  haud  scio 
an  ita  sit.  XLI.  Sed  cur  rapior  in  invidiam  ?  hcetne 
per  vos  nescire  quod  nescio  ?  An  Stoicis  ipsis  inter 
se  disceptare,  cum  iis  non^  hcebit  ?  Zenoni  et  rehquis 
fere  Stoicis  aether  videtur  summus  deus,  mente 
praeditus  qua  omnia  regantur,  Cleanthes,  qui  quasi 
maiorum  est  gentium  Stoicus,  Zenonis  auditor,  solem 
dominari  et  rerum  potiri  putat  ;  ita  cogimur  dissen- 
sione  sapientium  dominum  nostrum  ignorare,  quippe 
qui  nesciamus  soh  an  aetheri  serviamus.  Sohs  autem 
magnitudinem — ipse  enim  hic  radiatus  me  intueri 
videtur,  admonens  ut  crebro  faciam  mentionem  sui 
— vos  ergo  huius  magnitudinem  quasi  decempeda 
permensi  refertis,  ego  me  quasi  mahs  architectis 
mensurae  vestrae  nego  credere  :  dubium  est  uter 
nostrum    sit  —  leviter    ut    dicam  —  inverecundior*  ? 

127  Nec    tamen    istas    quaestiones    physicorum    exter- 

*  quod  Davies  :  quae  codd, 

2  esse  om.  Christ. 

^  non  <nobis>  .**  Reid. 

*  Morgevstern  :  verecundior  codd, 

630 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xl.— xli. 

fictions  :  it  is  better  to  have  no  opinions  than  to  have 

126  such  ^vrong  ones ! '  Oh,  then,  the  object  is  not  to 
get  me  to  give  the  approval  of  my  assent  to  something 
— a  demand  which  it  is  surely  actually  impudent 
and  not  merely  arrogant  for  you  to  make,  especially 
as  these  dogmas  of  yours  don't  seem  to  me  even 
probable  ;  for  I  don't  as  a  matter  of  fact  think  that 
there  is  any  such  thing  as  the  divination  which  your 
school  accepts,  and  I  make  hght  of  the  existence  of 
that  destiny  which  your  school  declares  to  be  the 
bond  that  holds  the  universe  together — I  do  not  even 
deem  that  this  world  was  built  on  a  divine  plan  ;  and 

yet  it  may  be  so.  XLL  But  why  am  I  dragged  Yetthe 
into  disfavour  ?  may  I  have  your  leave  not  to  na"tfire°ha3 
know  what  I  do  not  know  ?  Are  the  Stoics  to  be  morai  vaiuek 
allowed  to  dispute  among  themselves  but  nobody 
allowed  to  dispute  with  the  Stoics  ?  Zeno  and  almost 
all  the  other  Stoics  think  the  aether  a  supreme  deity, 
endowed  with  a  mind  whereby  the  universe  is  ruled, 
Cleanthes,  the  Stoic  of  the  older  famiHes  as  it  were, 
who  was  a  disciple  of  Zeno,  holds  that  the  sun  is  lord 
and  master  of  the  world  ;  thus  the  disagreement  of 
the  ^vise  compels  us  to  be  ignorant  of  our  own  lord, 
inasmuch  as  we  do  not  know  whether  we  are  the 
servants  of  the  sun  or  of  the  aether.  Then  the  size 
of  the  sun — for  this  radiant  sun  himself  seems  to  be 
gazing  at  me,  reminding  me  to  keep  mentioning  him 
— your  school  then  report  his  size  as  if  you  had 
measured  it  with  a  ten-foot  rule,  while  I  declare  that  I 
mistrust  this  measurement  of  yours  as  I  distrust  in- 
competent  architects  :  then  is  it  doubtful  which  of  us 

127  is — to  speak  frivolously — the  more  modest  ?  And 
all  the  same  I  do  not  think  that  these  physical  in- 
vestigations  of  yours  should  be  put  out  of  bounds. 

631 


CICERO 

minandas  puto.  Est  enim  animorum  ingeniorum- 
que  naturale  quoddam  quasi  pabulum  consideratio 
contemplatioque  naturae  ;  erigimur,  altiores  fieri 
^-idemur,  humana  despicimus,  cogitantesque  supera 
atque  caelestia  haec  nostra  ut  exigua  et  minima  con- 
temnimus.  Indagatio  ipsa  rerum  cum  maximarum 
tum  etiam  occultissimarum  habet  oblectationem  ; 
si  vero  aliquid  occurrit  quod  veri  simile  videatur, 
128  humani^sima  completur  animus  voluptate.  Quaeret 
igitur  haec  et  vester  sapiens  et  hic  noster,  sed  vester 
ut  adsentiatur  credat  adfirmet,  noster  ut  vereatur 
temere  opinari  praeclareque  agi  secum  putet  si  in 
eius  modi  rebus  veri  simile  quod  sit  invenerit. 

Veniamus  nunc  ad  bonorum  malorumque  notionem : 
at^  paulum  ante  dicendum  est.  Non  mihi  videntur  con- 
siderare  cum^  ista  valde  adfirmant  earum  etiam  rerum 
auctoritatem  si  quae  inlustriores  videantur  amittere. 
Non  enim  magis  adsentiuntur  nec  adprobant  lucere 
nunc  quam  cum  cornix  cecinerit  tum  ahquid  eam  aut 
iubere  aut  vetare,  nec  magis  adfirmabunt  signum 
illud  si  erunt  mensi  sex  pedum  esse  quam  solem, 
quem  metiri  non  possunt,  plus  quam  duodeviginti 
partibus  maiorem  esse  quam  terram.  Ex  quo  illa 
conclusio  nascitur  :  si  sol  quantus  sit  percipi  non 
potest,  qui  ceteras  res  eodem  modo  quo  magnitu- 

^  at  Reid  :  et  codd. 
*  funi  Reid  :  cum  physici  codd. 
032 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xli. 

For  the  study  and  observation  of  nature  affords  a 
sort  of  natural  pasturage  for  the  spirit  and  intellect ; 
we  are  uplifted,  we  secm  to  become  more  exalted, 
we  look  doM-n  on  what  is  human,  and  while  reflecting 
upon  things  above  and  in  the  heavens  we  despise  this 
world  of  our  own  as  small  and  even  tiny.  There  is 
dehght  in  the  mere  investigation  of  matters  at  once 
of  supreme  magnitude  and  also  of  extreme  obscurity  ; 
while  if  a  notion  comes  to  us  that  appears  to  bear 
a  hkeness  to  the  truth,  the  mind  is  filled  \^ith  the 
128  most  humanizing  kind  of  pleasure.  These  researches 
tlierefore  will  be  pursued  both  by  your  wise  man  and 
by  this  sage  of  ours,  but  by  yours  with  the  intention  of 
assenting,  beheving  and  affirming,  by  ours  with  the 
resolve  to  be  afraid  of  forming  rash  opinions  and  to 
deem  that  it  goes  well  with  him  if  in  matters  of  this 
kind  he  has  discovered  that  which  bears  a  hkeness  to 
truth. 

Now  let  us  come  to  the  concept  of  good  and  evil :  Even  yoa 
but   a  few  words  must  be  said  first.      When  they  ^^^^11 
assert  those  doctrines  so  positively  they  seem  to  me  sensations 
to  forget  that  they  also  lose  the  guarantee  for  facts  vaUdity"*' 
that  appear  to  be  more  clear.     For  their  assent  to  or 
acceptance  of  the  fact  that  dayhght  is  now  shining 
is  no  more  positive  than  their  assent  to  the  behef 
that  when  a  crow  croaks  it  is  conveying  some  com- 
mand  or  prohibition,   and  if  they  measure  yonder 
statue,  they  will  not  affimi  that  it  is  six  feet  high 
with  greater  positiveness  than  they  will  affirm  that 
the  sun,  which  they  cannot  measure,  is  more  than 
nineteen  times  as  large   as  the  earth.     From  this 
springs  the  foUowlng  train  of  argument :   if  it  cannot 
be  perceived  how  large  the  sun  is,  he  that  accepts  all 
other  things  in  the  same  way  as  he  accepts  the  sun 

633 


CICERO 

dinem  solis  adprobat,  is  eas  res  non  percipit ;  magni- 
tudo  autem  solis  percipi  non  potest  ;  qui  igitur  id 
adprobat  quasi  percipiat,  nullam  rem  percipit. 
Responderint  posse  percipi  quantus  sol  sit :  non  re- 
pugnabo  dum  modo  eodem  pacto  cetera  percipi 
comprehendique  dicant  ;  nec  enim  possunt  dicere 
aliud  alio  magis  minusve  comprehendi,  quoniam 
omnium  rerum  una  est  definitio  comprehendendi. 
129  XLII.  "  Sed  quod  coeperam  :  quid  habemus  in 
rebus  bonis  et  maUs  explorati  ?  Nempe  fines  con- 
stituendi  sunt  ad  quos  et  bonorum  et  malorum  summa 
referatur  ;  qua  de  re  est  igitur  inter  summos  viros 
maior  dissensio  ?  Omitto  illa  quae  rehcta  iam  viden- 
tur — ut  Erillum,  qui  in  cognitione  et  scientia  summum 
bonum  ponit ;  qui  cum  Zenonis  auditor  esset,  vides 
quantum  ab  eo  dissenserit  et  quam  non  multum  a 
Platone.  Megaricorum  fuit  nobihs  disciphna,  cuius, 
ut  scriptum  video,  princeps  Xenophanes  quem  modo 
nominavi  ;  deinde  eum  secuti  Parmenides  et  Zeno 
(itaque  ab  his  Eleatici  philosophi  nominabantur),  post 
Euchdes,  Socratis  discipulus,  Megareus  (a  quo  idem 
ilh  Megarici  dicti)  ;  qui  id  bonum  solum  esse  dice- 
bant  quod  esset  unum  et  simile  et  idem  semper.  Hi 
quoque  multa  a  Platone.  A  Menedemo  autem,  quod 
is  Eretrius^  fuit,  Eretriaci  appellati  ;  quorum  omne 
bonum  in  mente  positum  et  mentis  acie  qua  verum 

*  Lamhinus  :  Eretrias,  Eretria,  ex  Eretria  codd. 

"  *.€.,  summum  bonum  et  summum  malum,  '  the  supreme 
good  and  the  supreme  evil.'     Finis  has  come  to  be  almost  a 
synonym  for  summum,   '  highest   in  the  scale,'  losing  the 
sense  of  '  object  aimed  at.' 
634 


ACADEMICA,  11.  (Lucullus),  xli.— xlii. 

does  not  perceive  those  things  ;  but  the  size  of  the 
sun  cannot  be  perceived  ;  therefore  he  that  accepts 
it  as  if  he  perceived  it,  perceives  nothing.  Suppose 
their  answer  is  that  it  can  be  perceived  how  large  the 
sun  is  :  I  will  not  combat  this  provided  that  they  say 
that  everything  else  can  be  perceived  and  grasped 
in  the  same  manner ;  for  in  fact  it  is  impossible  for 
them  to  say  that  one  thing  is  grasped  more,  or  less, 
than  another,  since  there  is  one  definition  of  mental 
grasp  in  relation  to  all  objects. 
9  XLII.  "  But  to  resume  :  in  the  matter  of  good  and  (8^)The 
e^-il  what  certain  knowledge  have  we  got  }  Clearly  disa^^e-^*^ 
the  task  is  to  determine  the  Ends  which  are  the  ment  as 
standards  of  both  the  supreme  good  and  the  supreme  examples/ 
evil'^ ;  if  so,  what  question  is  the  subject  of  greater  dis- 
affreement  amoncr  the  leadino-  thinkers  ?  I  leave  out 
the  systems  that  appear  to  be  now  abandoned — for 
example  Erillus,  who  places  the  chief  good  in  learning 
and  in  knowledge  ;  although  he  was  a  pupil  of  Zeno, 
you  see  how  much  he  disagreed  with  him  and  how 
httle  with  Plato.  A  famous  school  was  that  of  the 
Megarians,  Mhose  founder,  as  I  see  it  recorded,  was 
Xenophanes  whom  I  mentioned  just  now  ;  next  he 
was  followed  by  Parmenides  and  Zeno  (and  so  the 
school  of  thought  derived  from  them  the  name  of 
Eleatic)  and  afterwards  by  EucHdes,  the  pupil  of 
Socrates,  a  Megarian  (from  whom  the  same  school 
obtained  the  title  of  Megarian)  ;  their  doctrine  was 
that  the  sole  good  is  that  which  is  always  one  and 
alike  and  the  same.  These  thinkers  also  took  much 
from  Plato.  But  from  Menedemus,  who  was  an 
Eretrian,  they  received  the  designation  of  the  Ere- 
trian  school ;  they  placed  their  good  wholly  in  the 
mind  and  in  keenness  of  mental  vision  whereby  the 

635 


CICERO 

cerneretur.    Elii^  similia  sed  opinor  explicata  uberius 

130  et  ornatius.  Hos  si  contemnimus  et  iam  abiectos 
putamus,  illos  certe  minus  despicere  debemus  :  Ari- 
stonem,  qui  cum  Zenonis  fuisset  auditor,  re  probavit 
ea  quae  ille  verbis,  nihil  esse  bonum  nisi  virtutem  nec 
malum  nisi  quod  virtuti  esset  contrarium  ;  In  mediis 
ea  momenta  quae  Zeno  voluit  nuUa  esse  censuit. 
Huic  summum  bonum  est  in  his  rebus  neutram  in 
partem  moveri,  quae  aoiac^opU  ab  ipso  dicitur ; 
Pyrrho  autem  ea  ne  sentire  quidem  sapientem,  quae 
o-dOeLa  nominatur.  Has  igitur  tot  sententias  ut 
omittamus,  haec  nunc  videamus  quae  diu  multumque 

131  defensa  sunt.  Ahi  voluptatem  finem  esse  voluerunt ; 
quorum  princeps  Aristippus  qui  Socratem  audierat, 
unde  Cyrenaici ;  post  Epicurus,  cuius  est  disci- 
pHna  nunc  notior  nec  tamen  cum  Cyrenaicis  de  ipsa 
voluptate  consentiens.  ^^oluptatem  autem  et  ho- 
nestatem  finem  esse  CaUipho  censuit,  vacare  omni 
molestia  Hieronymus,  hoc  idem  cum  honestate 
Diodorus,  ambo  hi  Peripatetici  ;  honeste  autem 
vivere  fruentem  rebus  iis  quas  primas  homini  natura 
concihet  et  vetus  Academia  censuit,  ut  indicant 
scripta  Polemonis  quem  Antiochus  probat  maxime, 
et  Aristoteles  eiusque  amici  huc  proxime  videntur 

»  Elii  {vel  Eliaci)  Reid  :   ulli,  illi  codd. :  Herilli  Mdv. 


"  The  term  is  more  often  applied  as  an  adjective  to  tlie 
things  themselves,  ddLdcpopat  '  indifferent,' 

636 


ACADEMICA,  11.  (Lucullus),  xlii. 

tnith  is   discerned.      The    school    of  Elis    taught  a 
similar  doctrine,  but  I  beheve  they  expounded  it  in 

30  a  more  copious  and  ornate  style.  If  we  look  down 
on  these  philosophers  and  think  them  out  of  date, 
we  are  undoubtedly  bound  to  feel  less  contempt  for 
the  foUo^Wng  :  Aristo,  who,  having  been  a  disciple 
of  Zeno,  proved  in  practice  what  his  master  estab- 
lished  in  theory,  that  nothing  is  good  except  ^irtue, 
and  nothing  evil  unless  it  is  contrary  to  virtue  ; 
those  motives  of  action  which  Zeno  held  to  exist  in 
things  intermediate  he  deemed  to  be  non-existent. 
Aristo's  chief  good  is  in  these  things  to  be  moved  in 
neither  direction — he  himself  calls  it  adiaphoria  "■  ; 
Pyrrho  on  the  other  hand  held  that  the  wise  man 
does  not  even  perceive  these  things  ^^ith  his  senses — 
the  name  for  this  unconsciousness  is  apatheia.  Leav- 
ing  on  one  side  therefore  all  these  numerous  opinions, 
let  us  now  look  at  the  follo%\-ing  which  have  long  been 

31  strongly  championed.  Others  have  held  that  the 
end  is  pleasure  ;  their  founder  was  Aristippus,  who 
had  been  a  pupil  of  Socrates,  and  from  whom  they 
get  the  name  of  the  Cyrenaic  school ;  after  him 
came  Epicurus,  whose  doctrine  is  now  more  famous, 
although  on  the  actual  subject  of  pleasure  it  does  not 
agree  \\\i\i  the  Cyrenaics.  But  Callipho  defined  the 
end  as  being  pleasure  and  moral  goodness,  Hier- 
onymus  as  freedom  from  all  annoyance,  Diodorus 
the  same  combined  with  moral  goodness — both  the 
two  latter  were  Peripatetics  ;  but  the  Old  Academy 
defined  the  end  as  living  the  moral  life  while  enjoy- 
ing  those  primary  things  which  nature  recommends 
to  man — this  is  proved  by  the  WTitings  of  Polemo, 
who  is  very  highly  approved  by  Antiochus  ;  and  also 
Aristotle  and  his  adherents  seem  to  come  very  near 

Y  637 


CICERO 

accedere.  Introducebat  etiam  Cameades,  non  quo 
probaret  sed  ut  opponeret  Stoicis,  summum  bonum 
esse  frui  rebus  iis  quas  primas  natura  conciliavisset. 
Honeste  autem  vivere,  quod  ducatur  a  conciliatione 
naturae,  Zeno  statuit  finem  esse  bonorum,  qui 
inventor  et  princeps  Stoicorum  fuit. 
132  XLIII.  "  lam  illud  perspicuum  est,  omnibus  his 
finibus  bonorum  quos  exposui  malorum  fines  esse 
contrarios.  Ad  vos  nunc  refero  quem  sequar,  modo 
ne  quis  illud  tam  ineruditum  absurdumque  respon- 
deat,  *  Quemlibet,  modo  aliquem  '  :  nihil  potest  dici 
inconsideratius.  Cupio  sequi  Stoicos :  licetne — omitto 
per  Aristotelem,  meo  iudicio  in  philosophia  prope 
singularem — per  ipsum  Antiochum  ?  qui  appella- 
batur  Academicus,  erat  quidem,^  si  perpauca  muta- 
visset,  germanissimus  Stoicus.  Erit  igitur  res  iam  in 
discrimine,  nam  aut  Stoicus  constituatur^  sapiens 
aut  veteris  Academiae.  Utrumque  non  potest,  est 
enim  inter  eos  non  de  terminis  sed  de  tota  posses- 
sione  contentio,  nam  omnis  ratio  vitae  definitione 
summi  boni  continetur,  de  qua  qui  dissident  de  omni 
vitae  ratione  dissident.  Non  potest  igitur  uterque 
esse  sapiens,  quoniam  tanto  opere  dissentiunt,  sed 
alter.  Si  Polemoneus,  peccat  Stoicus  rei  falsae 
adsentiens — nam  vos  quidem^  nihil  esse  dicitis  a 
sapiente  tam  ahenum  ;  sin  vera  sunt  Zenonis,  eadem 

*  quidem  :  autem  ?  ed. 

*  constituetur  Lamhinus. 

3  nam  vos  quidem  Davies  :   num  quidem  codd.  t  namque 
idem  Reid, 
638 


ACADEMICA,  11.  (Lucullus),  xlii.— xliii. 

to  this  position.  Also  Carneades  used  to  put  forward 
the  view — not  that  he  held  it  hiniself  but  in  order  to 
combat  the  Stoics  with  it — that  the  chief  good  was  to 
enjoy  those  things  that  nature  had  recommended  as 
primary.  Zeno  however,  who  was  the  originator 
and  first  head  of  the  Stoics,  set  it  up  that  the  end  of 
goods  is  the  morally  honourable  Hfe,  and  that  this  is 
derived  from  nature's  recommendation. 
32  XLIII.  "  There  follows  the  obvious  point  that  some  stoic 
corresponding  to  all  the  ends  of  goods  that  I  have  set  are'^"°^"'' 
out  there  are  opposite  ends  of  evils.  Whom  I  am  to  chaiienged 
follow  now  I  leave  to  you,  only  do  not  let  anyone  make  Antiochus, 
that  very  uneducated  and  ridiculous  answer  '  Any 
body  you  hke,  only  follow  somebody  '  ;  no  remark 
could  be  more  ill-considered.  I  am  eager  to  follow 
the  Stoics  :  have  I  permission — I  don't  say  from 
Aristotle,  in  my  judgement  almost  the  outstanding 
figure  in  philosophy,  but  from  Antiochus  himself  ? 
he  was  called  an  Academic,  and  was  in  fact,  had  he 
made  very  few  modifications,  a  perfectly  genuine 
Stoic.  Well  then,  the  matter  will  now  come  to  an 
issue  :  we  must  settle  on  either  the  Stoic  wise  man 
or  the  wise  man  of  the  Old  Academy.  To  take  both 
is  impossible,  for  the  dispute  between  them  is  not 
about  boundaries  but  about  the  whole  ownership  of 
the  ground,  since  the  entire  scheme  of  hfe  is  bound 
up  with  the  definition  of  the  supreme  good,  and  those 
who  disagree  about  that  disagree  about  the  whole 
scheme  of  hfe.  They  cannot  therefore  each  of  them 
be  the  wise  man,  since  they  disagree  so  widely  ; 
it  must  be  one  or  the  other.  If  Polemo's  is,  the 
Stoic  wise  man  sins  in  assenting  to  a  falsehood 
— for  you  certainly  say  that  nothing  is  so  ahen 
from  the  wise  man ;  if  on  the  other  hand  Zeno's 
y2  639 


CICERO 

in    veteres    Academicos    Peripateticosque    dicenda. 
Hic  igitur  neutri  adsentietur  ?     Sin,  inquam,^  uter 

133  est  prudentior  ?  Quid  ?  cum  ipse  Antiochus  dissentit 
quibusdam  in  rebus  ab  his  quos  amat  Stoicis,  nonne 
indicat  non  posse  illa  probanda  esse  sapienti  ?  Placet 
Stoicis  omnia  peccata  esse  paria,  at  hoc  Antiocho 
vehementissime  displicet ;  Hceat  tandem  mihi  con- 
siderare  utram  sententiam  sequar.  '  Praecide,* 
inquit, '  statue  aUquando  quidUbet ! '  Quid  quod  quae 
dicuntur^  et  acuta  mihi  videntur  in  utramque  partem 
et  paria  ?  nonne  caveam  ne  scelus  faciam  ?  scelus 
enim  dicebas  esse,  Luculle,  dogma  prodere  ;  con- 
tineo  igitur  me  ne  incognito  adsentiar — quod  mihi 

134  tecum  est  dogma  commune.  Ecce  multo  maior 
etiam  dissensio  :  Zeno  in  una  virtute  positam  beatam 
vitam  putat ;  quid  Antiochus  ?  '  Etiam,'  inquit, 
*  beatam  sed  non  beatissimam.'  Deus  ille  qui  nihil 
censuit  deesse  virtuti,  homuncio  hic  qui  multa  putat 
praeter  virtutem  homini  partim  cara'  esse,  partim 
etiam  necessaria.  Sed  ille  vereor  ne  virtuti  plus 
tribuat  quam  natura  patiatur,  praesertim  Theo- 
phrasto  multa  diserte  copioseque  contra*  dicente. 
Et  hic  metuo  ne  vix  sibi  constet  qui  cum  dicat  esse 
quaedam  et  corporis  et  fortunae  mala,  tamen  eum 
qui  in  his  omnibus  sit  beatum  fore  censeat  si  sapiens 
sit.     Distrahor — tum  hoc  mihi  probabihus  tum  illud 

^  Reid  :  adsentiens  si  nunquam  codd. 

*  quid  quae  dicuntur  quid  {et  alia)  codd. :   correxit  OuieU 

*  cara  edd. :  clara  codd. :  praeclara  ?  Reid. 

*  contra  inseruit  Goerens. 

"  i.e.,  an  opinion  once  decided,  decretum^  cf.  §  21, 
640 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xliii. 

doctrine  is  true,  the  same  verdict  has  to  be  passed 
a^ainst  the  Old  Academics  and  the  Peripatetics. 
\Vill  Antiochus  therefore  agree  with  neither  .''  or  if 

133  not,  Nvhich  of  the  two,  say  I,  is  the  wiser  ?  What 
then  ?  when  Antiochus  himself  disagrees  in  some 
things  from  these  Stoic  friends  of  his,  does  he  not 
show  that  it  is  impossible  for  these  views  to  be  what 
the  wise  man  must  approve  ?  The  Stoics  hold  that  all 
sins  are  equal,  but  Mith  this  Antiochus  most  violently 
disagrees  ;  do  please  give  me  leave  to  dehberate 
which  opinion  to  follow.  '  Cut  it  short,'  says  he  ;  *  do 
for  once  decide  on  something  !  '  What  of  the  fact 
that  the  arguments  advanced  seem  to  me  both  acute 
on  either  side  and  equally  valid  ?  am  I  not  to  be 
careful  not  to  commit  a  crime  ?  for  you,  Lucullus, 
said  that  it  is  a  crime  to  abandon  a  dogma  ^  ;  there- 
fore  I  hold  myself  in  so  as  not  to  assent  to  a  thing 
unknoA^Ti — that  is  a  dogma  that  I  share  with  you. 

134  Look  at  an  even  much  wider  disagreement  :  Zeno 
thinks  that  the  happy  life  is  placed  in  virtue  alone  ; 
what  is  the  view  of  Antiochus  ?  *  Yes,'  says  he, '  the 
happy  Ufe,  but  not  the  happiest.*  Zeno  was  a  god, 
he  deemed  that  virtue  lacks  nothing  :  Antiochus  is 
a  puny  mortal,  he  thinks  that  many  things  besides 
virtue  are  some  of  them  dear  to  man  and  some  even 
necessary.  But  I  fear  that  Zeno  assigns  more  to 
virtue  than  nature  would  allow,  especially  as  Theo- 
phrastus  says  a  great  deal  with  eloquence  and  full- 
ness  on  the  opposite  side.  And  as  for  Theophrastus, 
I  am  afraid  it  is  hardly  consistent  of  him  both  to  say 
that  certain  evils  of  body  and  estate  do  exist,  and  yet 
to  hold  that  a  man  for  whom  these  are  his  entire 
environment  will  be  happy  if  he  is  wise.  I  amdragged 
in  different  directions — now  the  latter  view  seems  to 

641 


CICERO 

videtur.  Et  tamen,  nisi  alterutmm  sit,  virtutem 
iacere  plane  puto  ;  verum  in  his  discrepant. 
135  XLIV.  "  Quid,  illa  in  quibus  consentiunt  num  pro 
veris  probare  possumus  ?  Sapientis  animum  num- 
quam  nec  cupiditate  moveri  nec  laetitia  ecferri  ? 
age,  haec  probabilia  sane  sint  :  num  etiam  illa,  num- 
quam  timere,  numquam  dolere  ?  Sapiensne  non 
timeat  ne  patria  deleatur  ?  non  doleat  si  deleta  sit  ? 
Durum,  sed  Zenoni  necessarium,  cui  praeter  hone- 
stum  nihil  est  in  bonis  ;  tibi  vero,  Antioche,  minime, 
cui  praeter  honestatem  multa  bona,  praeter  turpi- 
tudinem  multa  mala  videntur,  quae  et  venientia 
metuat  sapiens  necesse  est  et  venisse  doleat.  Sed 
quaero  quando  ista  fuerint  ab^  Academia  vetere 
decreta,  ut  animum  sapientis  commoveri  et  con- 
turbari  negarent.  Mediocritates  ilh  probabant,  et  in 
omni  permotione  naturalem  volebant  esse  quendam 
modum.  Legimus  omnes  Crantoris  veteris  Academici 
De  Luctu  ;  est  enim  non  magnus  verum  aureolus 
et,  ut  Tuberoni  Panaetius  praecipit,  ad  verbum 
ediscendus  hbellus.  Atque  ilh  quidem  etiam  utihter 
a  natura  dicebant  permotiones  istas  animis  nostris 
datas,  metum  cavendi  causa,  misericordiam  aegritu- 
dinemque  clementiae ;  ipsam  iracundiam  fortitudi- 
nis  quasi  cotem   esse   dicebant,  recte   secusne  ahas 

^   ;ib  i/is.  edd. 

-  Cf.  Sj  21,  ' 

642 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xliii.— xliv. 

me  the  more  probable,  now  the  former.  And  yet  I 
firmly  beheve  that  unless  one  or  other  is  true,  virtue 
is  overthrown  ;  but  they  are  at  variance  on  these 
points. 
135  XLIV.  "  Again,  those  tenets  on  which  they  agree  and  even 
surely  cannot  be  approved  by  us  as  true  ?  The  doc-  heTccipti 
trine  that  the  mind  of  the  wise  man  is  never  moved  ^^^  p*'^; 
by  desire  or  elated  by  joy  ?  well,  granted  that  this  ^  * 
may  be  probable,  surely  the  foUo^ving  tenets  are 
not  so  too,  that  he  never  feels  fear  and  that  he  never 
feels  pain  ?  would  the  wise  man  feel  no  fear  lest  his 
country  might  be  destroyed  ?  no  pain  if  it  were  ? 
A  hard  doctrine,  although  unavoidable  for  Zeno,  who 
includes  nothing  in  the  category  of  good  save  moral 
worth  ;  but  not  at  all  unavoidable  for  you,  Antiochus, 
who  think  many  things  good  beside  moral  worth,  and 
many  bad  beside  baseness — things  that  the  wise  man 
is  bound  to  fear  when  they  are  coming  and  to  regret 
when  they  have  come.  But  I  want  to  know  when 
the  Old  Academy  adopted  '  decisions  ' "  of  that  sort, 
asserting  that  the  mind  of  the  wise  man  does  not 
undergo  emotion  and  perturbation.  That  school  were 
upholders  of  the  mean  in  things,  and  held  that  in  all 
emotion  there  was  a  certain  measure  that  was  natural. 
We  have  all  read  the  Old  Academician  Crantor's  On 
Grief,  for  it  is  not  a  large  but  a  golden  Uttle  volume, 
and  one  to  be  thoroughly  studied  word  by  word, 
as  Panaetius  enjoins  upon  Tubero.  And  the  Old 
Academy  indeed  used  to  say  that  the  emotions  in 
question  were  bestowed  by  nature  upon  our  minds 
for  actually  useful  purposes — fear  for  the  sake  of  exer- 
cising  caution,  pity  and  sorrow  for  the  sake  of  mercy  ; 
anger  itself  they  used  to  say  was  a  sort  of  whetstone 
of  courage — whether  this  was  right  or  not  let  us  con- 

643 


CICERO 

136  viderimus.  Atrocitas  quidem  ista  tua  quo  modo  in 
veterem  Academiam  inruperit  nescio  ;  illa  vero  ferre 
non  possum,  non  quo  mihi  displiceant  (sunt  enim 
Socratica  pleraque  mirabilia  Stoicorum,  quae  -apaSofa 
nominantur),  sed  ubi  Xenocrates,  ubi  Aristoteles  ista 
tetigit  (hos  enim  quasi  eosdem  esse  vultis)  ?  illi 
umquam  dicerent  sapientes  solos  reges,  solos  divites, 
solos  formosos,  omnia  quae  ubique  essent  sapientis 
esse,  neminem  consulem  praetorem  imperatorem, 
nescio  an  ne  quinquevirum  quidem  quemquam,  nisi 
sapientem,  postremo  solum  civem,  solum  hberum, 
insipientes  omnes  peregrinos,  exsules,  servos,  furio- 
sos  ?  denique  scripta^  Lycurgi,  Solonis,  duodecim 
tabulas  nostras  non  esse  leges  ?  ne  urbes  quidem  aut 

137  civitates  nisi  quae  essent  sapientium  ?  Haec  tibi, 
Luculle,  si  es  adsensus  Antiocho  famihari  tuo,  tam 
sunt  defendenda  quam  moenia,  mihi  autem  bono 
modo  tantum  quantum  videbitur. 

XLV.  "  Legi  apud  Chtomachum,  cum  Carneades 
et  Stoicus  Diogenes  ad  senatum  in  Capitoho  starent, 
A.  Albinum  qui  tumP.  Scipioneet  M.  Marcello  consuh- 
bus  praetor  esset,eum  qui  cum  avo  tuo,Luculle,consul 
fuit,  doctum  sane  hominem  ut  indicat  ipsius  historia 
scripta  Graece,  iocantem  dixisse  Carneadi  :  *  Ego 
tibi,  Carneade,  praetor  esse  non  videor  [quia  sapiens 

^  praescripta  ?  Reid. 

"  This  is  done  in  the  Tuffculan  Disputations. 

^  i.e.t  allow  you  to  advance  them. 

*  With  Critolaus  they  came  on  an  embassy  from  Athens, 
155  B.c. 

<*  This  interpolation  spoils  the  joke,  which  turns  on  the 
Academician's  doctrine  of  the  uncertainty  of  all  things. 

64A 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xliv.— xlv. 

136  sidcr  on  another  occasion."  How  indeed  that  ferocity 
of  yours  forced  an  entrance  into  the  Old  Academy 
I  do  not  know  ;  but  I  cannot  approve  ^  those  doctrines, 
not  because  they  seem  unsatisfactory  to  me  (for  most 
of  the  '  surprising  arguments,'  the  so-called  paradoxa. 
of  the  Stoics  belong  to  Socrates),  but  where  did 
Xenocrates  hint  at  those  views,  or  Aristotle  (for  you 
maintain  that  Xenocrates  and  Aristotle  are  almost 
identical)  }  could  they  ever  say  that  wise  men  alone 
are  kings,  alone  wealthy,  alone  handsome,  that  all 
the  things  anywhere  existing  belong  to  the  \\-ise  man, 
that  no  one  is  consul  or  praetor  or  general,  no  one 
even  a  pohce-magistrate,  except  the  \\-ise  man,  and 
finally  that  he  only  is  a  citizen  and  a  free  man,  and 
that  all  those  not  A\*ise  are  foreigners  and  exiles  and 
slaves  and  madmen  }  in  fact  that  the  rules  given 
under  the  hand  of  Lycurgus  and  Solon,  and  our 
Twelve  Tables,  are  not  laws  ?  that  there  are  no  cities 
even  nor  states  save  those  that  are  the  work  of  >^-ise 

137  men  ?  You,  Lucullus,  if  you  have  accepted  the  views 
of  your  associate  Antiochus,  are  bound  to  defend 
these  doctrines  as  you  would  defend  the  walls  of 
Rome,  but  I  need  only  do  so  in  moderation,  just  as 
much  as  I  think  fit. 

XLV.  "  I   have   read  in   CHtomachus   that   when  whiie 
Carneades   and   the   Stoic    Diogenes  '^   were   on   the  JyestTon? 
Capitol  attending  on  the  senate,  Aulus  Albinus,  who  other  stoic 
was  praetor  at  the  time,  in  the  consulship  of  Pubhus 
Scipio  and  Marcus  Marcellus, — he  was  a  colleague  of 
your  grandfather,  LucuUus,  as  consul,  and  his  o^^ti 
history  wTitten  in  Greek  shows  him  to  have  been  a 
decidedly  learned  man, — said  to  Carneades  in  jest: 
'  In  your  ^iew,  Carneades,  I  am  not  a  real  praetor 
[because  I  am  not  a  wise  man  ^],  nor  is  this  a  real 

645 


CICERO 

non  sum]^  nec  haec  urbs  nec  in  ea  ci^itas.'  Tum  ille: 
'  Huic  Stoico  non  videris.'  Aristoteles  aut  Xeno- 
crates,  quos  Antiochus  sequi  volebat,  non  dubita- 
visset  quin  et  praetor  ille  esset  et  Roma  urbs  et  eam 
ci^dtas  incoleret  ;    sed  ille  noster  est  plane,  ut  supra 

138  dixi,  Stoicus,  perpauca  balbutiens.  Vos  autem  mihi 
verenti  ne  labar  ad  opinationem  et  aliquid  adsciscam 
et  comprobem  incognitum  (quod  minime  vultis),  quid 
consiUi  datis  ?  Testatur  saepe  Chrysippus  tres  solas 
esse  sententias  quae  defendi  possint  de  finibus 
bonorum,  circumcidit  et  amputat  multitudinem — 
aut  enim  honestatem  esse  finem  aut  voluptatem  aut 
utrumque  ;  nam  qui  summimi  bonum  dicant  id  esse 
si  vacemus  omni  molestia,  eos  invidiosum  nomen 
voluptatis  fugere,  sed  in  vicinitate  versari,  quod 
facere  eos  etiam  qui  illud  idem  cum  honestate 
coniungerent,  nec  multo  secus  eos  qui  ad  honestatem 
prima  naturae  commoda  adiungerent ;  ita  tris 
rehnquit   sententias   quas   putet   probabihter   posse 

139  defendi.  Sit  sane  ita,  quamquam  a  Polemonis  et 
Peripateticorum  et  Antiochi  finibus  non  facile  divellor 
nec  quicquam  habeo  adhuc  probabihus — verum 
tamen  video  quam  suaviter  voluptas  sensibus  nostris 
blandiatur.  Labor  eo  ut  adsentiar  Epicuro  aut 
Aristippo  :  revocat  virtus  vel  potius  reprendit  manu, 
pecudum  illos  motus  esse  dicit,  hominem  iungit  deo. 

1  Reid. 
646 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucuixus),  xlv. 

city  nor  its  corporation  a  real  corporation.'  *  In  the 
view  of  our  Stoic  friend  here  you  are  not,'  rephed 
Carneades.  Aristotle  or  Xenocrates,  the  masters  of 
whom  Antiochus  made  himself  out  to  be  a  follower, 
would  not  have  doubted  either  that  Albinus  was  a 
praetor  or  Rome  a  city  or  its  inhabitants  a  corpora- 
tion  ;  but  our  friend  Carneades,  as  I  said  above,  is  a 
dowTiright  Stoic,  though  stammering  on  a  very  few 

108  points.  As  for  yourselves  however,  seeing  that  I  am  in  factthe^ 
afraid  I  may  shp  into  forming  opinions  and  adopt  and  betweeV*' 
approve  something  that  I  do  not  know  (which  you  Pieasure 
specially  disapprove  of),  Mhat  advice  do  you  give  me  ? 
Chrysippus  often  solemnly  avows  that  from  among 
possible  views  as  to  the  chief  good  there  are  only 
three  that  can  be  defended — a  crowd  of  others  he 
lops  off  and  discards  :  for  he  holds  that  the  end  is 
either  moral  goodness,  or  pleasure,  or  a  combination 
of  the  two  ;  for  those  who  say  that  the  chief  good 
consists  in  our  being  free  from  all  trouble  are  trying 
(he  says)  to  avoid  the  unpopular  word  '  pleasure,'  but 
don't  get  very  far  away  from  it,  and  the  same  is  also 
the  case  \vith  those  who  combine  freedom  from  trouble 
with  moral  goodness,  nor  is  it  very  different  with 
those  who  to  moral  goodness  join  the  primary  advan- 
tages  of  nature  :    thus  he  leaves  three  opinions  that 

139  he  thinks  capable  of  a  probable  defence.  Suppose  it 
is  so,  although  I  find  it  hard  to  be  parted  from  the 
Ends  of  Polemo  and  the  Peripatetics  and  Antiochus, 
and  hitherto  have  got  nothing  more  probable — but 
nevertheless  I  see  how  sweetly  pleasure  flatters  our 
senses.  I  am  sUpping  into  agreeing  with  Epicurus 
or  else  Aristippus  :  virtue  calls  me  back,  or  rather 
plucks  me  back  ^Wth  her  hand  ;  she  declares  that 
those  are  the  feelings  of  the  beasts  of  the  field,  and 

647 


CICERO 

Possum  esse  medius,  ut,  quoniam  Aristippus  quasi 
animum  nullum  habeamus  corpus  solum  tuetur,  Zeno 
quasi  corporis  simus  expertes  animum  solum  com- 
plectitur,  ut  Calliphontem  sequar,  cuius  quidem  sen- 
tentiam  Carneades  ita  studiose  defensitabat  ut  eam 
probare  etiam  videretur  (quamquam  CHtomachus 
adfirmabat  numquam  se  intellegere  potuisse  quid 
Carneadi  probaretur)  ;  sed  si  istum  finem  veUm 
sequi,  nonne  ipsa  veritas  et  gra\ds  et  recta  ratio 
mihi  obversetur,  *  Tune,^  cum  honestas  in  voluptate 
contemnenda  consistat,  honestatem  cum  voluptate 

140  tamquam  hominem  cum  belua  copulabis  ?  '  XLVI. 
Unum  igitur  par  quod  depugnet  rehcum  est,  voluptas 
cum  honestate  ;  de  quo  Chrysippo  fuit  quantum  ego 
sentio  non  magna  contentio.  Alteram  si  sequare, 
multa  ruunt  et  maxime  communitas  cum  hominum 
genere,  caritas  amicitia  iustitia,  rehquae  virtutes, 
quarum  esse  nulla  potest  nisi  erit  gratuita,  nam  quae 
voluptate  quasi  mercede  ahqua  ad  officium  impelhtur, 
ea  non  est  \drtus  sed  fallax  imitatio  simulatioque 
\drtutis.  Audi  contra  illos  qui  nomen  honestatis  a 
se  ne  intellegi  quidem  dicant,  nisi  forte  quod  glo- 
riosum  sit  in  vulgus  id  honestum  veUmus  dicere  ; 
fontem  omnium  bonorum  in  corpore  esse,  hanc 
normam,  hanc  regulam,  hanc  praescriptionem  esse 
naturae,  a  qua  qui  aberravisset,  eum  numquam  quid 

141  in  vita  sequeretur  habiturum.  Nihil  igitur  me  puta- 
tis,2  haec  et  aha  innumerabiha  cum  audiam,  moveri  ? 
Tam  moveor  quam  tu,  Luculle,  nec  me  minus  homi- 

^  tune  Reid  :  tum  codd. 
*  putabis  Manutius:  putas  Goerens, 
648 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xlv.— xlvi. 

she  links  the  human  being  with  god.  A  possible  Hne 
is  for  me  to  be  neutral,  so  that,  as  Aristippus  looks 
only  at  the  body,  as  if  we  had  no  mind,  and  Zeno 
takes  into  consideration  only  the  mind,  as  if  we  were 
without  a  body,  I  should  foUow  CalHphon,  whose 
opinion  indeed  Carneades  was  constantly  defending 
with  so  much  zeal  that  he  was  thought  actually  to 
accept  it  (although  CUtomachus  used  to  declare  that 
he  had  never  been  able  to  understand  what  Carneades 
did  accept)  ;  but  if  I  were  wilUng  to  foUow  that  End, 
would  not  truth  herself  and  the  weight  of  right  reason 
meet  me  with  the  reply  :  *  What,  when  the  essence  of 
moraUty  is  to  scorn  pleasure,  ^vaU  you  couple  moraUty 
with  pleasure,  Uke  a  human  being  with  a  beast  ?  ' 

140  XLVI.  There  remains  therefore  one  match  to  be 
fought  oiT — pleasure  versus  moral  worth  :  and  on  this 
issue  Chrysippus,  as  far  as  I  for  my  part  can  perceive, 
had  not  much  of  a  struggle.  If  one  should  foUow  the 
former,  many  things  faU  in  ruin,  and  especiaUy  feUow- 
ship  with  mankind,  affection,  friendship,  justice  and 
the  rest  of  the  virtues,  none  of  which  can  exist  unless 
they  are  disinterested,  for  virtue  driven  to  duty  by 
pleasure  as  a  sort  of  pay  is  not  virtue  at  aU  but  a 
deceptive  sham  and  pretence  of  virtue.  Hear  on  the 
opposite  side  those  who  say  that  they  do  not  even 
understand  what  the  word  '  virtue  '  means,  unless 
indeed  we  choose  to  give  the  name  *  moral  '  to  what 
looks  weU  with  the  mob  :  that  the  source  of  aU  things 
good  is  in  the  body — this  is  nature's  canon  and 
rule  and  injunction,  to  stray  away  from  which  wiU 
result  in  a  man's  never  ha\ing  an  object  to  foUow  in 

141  Ufe.  Do  you  people  therefore  suppose  that  when  I 
am  Ustening  to  these  and  countless  other  things,  I 
am  quite  unaffected  ?     I  am  just  as  much  affected  as 

649 


CICERO 

nem  quam  te  putaveris.  Tantum  interest  quod  tu 
cum  es  commotus  adquiescis,  adsentiris,  adprobas, 
verum  illud  certum  comprehensum  perceptum  ratum 
firmum  fixum  \ds  esse,^  deque  eo  nulla  ratione 
neque  pelli  neque  mov(iri  potes,  ego  nihil  eius  modi 
esse  arbitror  cui  si  adsensus  sim  non  adsentiar 
saepe  falso,  quoniam  vera  a  falsis  nullo  discrimine 
separantur,  praesertim  cum  iudicia  ista  dialecticae 
nulla  sint. 

142  "  Venio  enim  iam  ad  tertiam  partem  philosophiae. 
AUud  iudicium  Protagorae  est  qui  putet  id  cuique 
verum  esse  quod  cuique  videatur,  ahud  Cyrenaicorum 
qui  praeter  permotione ;  intimas  nihil  putant  esse 
iudicii,  ahud  Epicuri  qui  omne  iudicium  in  sensibus 
et  in  rerum  notitiis  et  in  voluptate  constituit ;  Plato 
autem  omne  iudicium  veritatis  veritatemque  ipsam 
abductam  ab  opinionibus  et  a  sensibus  cogitationis 

143  ipsius  et  mentis  esse  voluit.  Num  quid  horum  probat 
noster  Antiochus  ?  Ille  vero  ne  maiorum  quidem 
suorum — ubi  enim  aut  Xenocraten  sequitur,  cuius 
libri  sunt  de  ratione  loquendi  multi  et  multum 
probati,  aut  ipsum  Aristotelem,  quo  profecto  nihil 
est  acutius,  nihil  pohtius  ?  A  Chrysippo  pedem 
nusquam.  XLVII.  Quid  ergo  Academici  appella- 
mur  ?  an  abutimur  gloria  nominis  ?  Aut  cur  cogimur 
eos  sequi  qui  inter  se  dissident  ?     In  hoc  ipso  quod 

^  vis  esse  Reid  :  fuisse  vis  vel  fuisse  vel  vis  codd. 

"  See  i.  25  no^e. 
650 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xlvi.— xlvii. 

you  are,  Liicullus,  pray  dorrt  think  that  I  am  less  a 
human  being  than  yourself.  The  only  difference  is  that 
whereas  you,  when  you  have  been  deeply  aff^ected, 
acquiesce,assent,  approve,hold  that  the  fact  iscertain, 
comprehended,  perceived,  ratified,  firm,  fixed,  and 
are  unable  to  be  driven  or  moved  away  from  it  by  any 
reason,  I  on  the  contrary  am  of  the  opinion  that  there 
is  nothing  of  such  a  kind  that  if  I  assent  to  it  I  shall 
not  often  be  assenting  to  a  falsehood,  since  truths 
are  not  separated  from  falsehoods  by  any  distinction, 
especially  as  those  logical  criteria  of  yours  are  non- 
existent. 

142  "  For  I  come  now  to  the  third  part  of  philosophy.  (8c)The 
One  view  of  the  criterion  is  that  of  Protacroras.  who  p.opmatisMi 

,  1  disagree- 

holds  that  M-hat  seems  true  to  each  person  is  true  ment  on 
for  each  person,  another  is  that  of  the  Cyrenaics,  who  ^^ic. 
hold  that  there  is  no  criterion  whatever  except  the 
inward  emotions,  another  that  of  Epicurus,  who  places 
the  standard  of  judgement  entirely  in  the  senses  and 
in  notions  of  objects  and  in  pleasure  ;  Plato  however 
held  that  the  entire  criterion  of  truth  and  truth  itself 
is  detached  from  opinions  and  from  the  senses  and 
belongs  to  the  mere  activity  of  thought  and  to  the 

143  mind.  Surely  our  friend  Antiochus  does  not  approve 
any  doctrine  of  these  teachers  ?  On  the  contrary  he 
does  not  even  accept  anything  from  his  own  ancestors 
— for  where  does  he  follow  either  Xenocrates,  who 
has  many  volumes  on  logic**  that  are  highly  thought  of, 
or  Aristotle  himself,  who  is  assuredly  unsurpassed  for 
acumen  and  finish  ?  He  never  diverges  a  foot's  length 
from  Chrysippus.  XLVII.  Why  then  are  we  called 
the  Academics  ?  is  our  use  of  that  glorious  title  a 
mistake  ?  Or  why  is  the  attempt  made  to  force  us 
to  follow  a  set  of  thinkers  who  are  divided  among 

651 


CICERO 

in  elementis  dialectici  docent,  quo  modo  iudicare 
oporteat  verum  falsumne  sit  si  quid  ita  conexum  est 
ut  hoc,  *  si  dies  est,  lucet,'  quanta  contentio  est ! 
Aliter  Diodoro,  aliter  Philoni,  Chrysippo  ahter  placet. 
Quid  ?  cum  Cleanthe  doctore  suo  quam  multis  rebus 
Chrysippus  dissidet  ?  quid  ?  duo  vel  principes  dia- 
lecticorum,  Antipater   et  Archidemus,  opiniosissimi 

144  homines,  nonne  multis  in  rebus  dissentiunt  ?  Quid 
me  igitur,  Luculle,  in  invidiam  et  tamquam  in  con- 
tionem  vocas,  et  quidem,  ut  seditiosi  tribuni  solent, 
occludi  tabernas  iubes  ?  quo  enim  spectat  illud  cum 
artificia  tolU  quereris  a  nobis,  nisi  ut  opifices  con- 
citentur  ?  Qui  si  undique  omnes  convenerint,  facile 
contra  vos  incitabuntur  !  expromam  primum  illa 
invidiosa,  quod  eos  omnes  qui  in  contione  stabunt 
exsules  servos  insanos  esse  dicatis  ;  dein  ad  illa 
veniam  quae  iam  non  ad  multitudinem  sed  ad  vosmet 
ipsos  qui  adestis  pertinent  :  negat  enim  vos  Zeno, 
negat  Antiochus  scire  quicquam.  '  Quo  modo  ?  ' 
inquies  ;    '  nos  enim  defendimus  etiam  insipientem 

145  multa  comprendere.'  At  scire  negatis  quemquam 
rem  ullam  nisi  sapientem  ;  et  hoc  quidem  Zeno 
gestu  conficiebat  :  nam  cum  extensis  digitis  adversam 
manum  ostenderat,  '  visum  '  inquiebat  *  huius  modi 
est '  ;  dein  cum  paulum  digitos  contraxerat,  '  ad- 
sensus  huius  modi  '  ;    tum  cum  plane  compresserat 

<*  This  word  is  coined  by  Cicero  in  jest.     For  opinio  =  Sd^a 
or  067/itt  cf.  i.  39,  42. 
652 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xlvii. 

themselves  ?  Even  on  a  matter  that  is  among  the 
very  elements  taught  by  the  dialecticians,  the  proper 
mode  of  judging  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  a  hypo- 
thetical  judgement  hke  *  if  day  has  dawned,  it  is 
light,*  what  a  dispute  goes  on  !  Diodorus  holds  one 
view,  Philo  another,  Chrysippus  another.  Then,  how 
many  points  of  difference  there  are  between  Chrys- 
ippus  and  his  teacher  Cleanthes  ?  Then,  do  not 
two  of  even  the  leading  dialecticians,  Antipater  and 
Archidemus,  the  most  obstinate  dogmatists'*  of  all 

144  mankind,    disagree   on   many    things  ?      Why  then,  Logic 
Lucullus,  do  you  bring  7?ie  into  disfavour,  and  summon  „01*^^*^°^^ 
me    before    a   pubhc    assembly,    so    to    speak,    and  necessary 
actually   imitate   seditious   tribunes   and   order   the  andcraits. 
shops  to  be  shut  ?    for  what  is  the  object  of  your 
complaint    that    we    are    abohshing    the    practical 
sciences,  unless  it  aims  at  stirring  up  the  craftsmen  ? 

But  if  they  all  come  together  from  every  quarter,  it 
will  be  easy  to  stir  them  on  to  attack  your  side  !  I 
shall  first  expound  the  unpopular  doctrine  that  all  the 
persons  then  standing  in  the  assembly  are  on  your 
showing  exiles,  slaves  and  madmen  ;  then  I  shall 
come  to  the  point  that  concerns  not  the  multitude 
but  you  yourselves  now  present  :  according  to  Zeno 
and  according  to  Antiochus,  you  do  not  know  any- 
thing  !  '  What  do  you  mean  by  that  ?  '  you  will  say  ; 
'  for  what  we  maintain  is  that  even  the  unwise  man 

145  can  comprehend  many  things.'  But  you  deny  that 
anybody  except  the  vrise  man  knoivs  anything  ;  and 
this  Zeno  used  to  demonstrate  by  gesture  :  for  he 
would  display  his  hand  in  front  of  one  with  the  fingers 
stretched  out  and  say  *  A  visual  appearance  is  hke 
this  '  ;  next  he  closed  his  fingers  a  httle  and  said, 
*  ^Vp  act  of  assent  is  hke  thi§  * ;  then  he  pressed  his 

65^ 


CICERO 

pugnumque  fecerat,  comprensionem  illam  esse 
dicebat  (qua  ex  similitudine  etiam  nomen  ei  rei,  quod 
ante  non  fuerat,  KaraXrjxl/iv  imposuit)  ;  cum  autem 
laevam  manum  admoverat  et  illum  pugnum  arte 
vehementerque  compresserat,  scientiam  talem  esse 
dicebat,  cuius  compotem  nisi  sapientem  esse  neminem 
— sed  qui  sapiens  sit  aut  fuerit  ne  ipsi  quidem  solent 
dicere.  Ita  tu  nunc,  Catule,  lucere  nescis,  nec  tu, 
146  Hortensi,  in  tua  ^dlla  nos  esse  !  Num  minus  haec 
invidiose  dicuntur  ?  nec  tamen  nimis  eleganter  ; 
illa  subtilius.  Sed  quo  modo  tu,  si  comprehendi 
nihil  posset,  artificia  concidere  dicebas  nec  mihi 
dabas  id  quod  probabile  esset  satis  magnam  vim 
habere  ad  artes,  sic  ego  nunc  tibi  refero  artem  sine 
scientia  esse  non  posse.  An  pateretur  hoc  Zeuxis 
aut  Phidias  aut  PolycUtus,  nihil  se  scire,  cum  in  iis 
esset  tanta  sollertia  ?  Quodsi  eos  docuisset  aUquis 
quam  vim  habere  diceretur  scientia,  desinerent 
irasci  :  ne  nobis  quidem  suscenserent  cum  didicissent 
id  toUere  nos  quod  nusquam  esset,  quod  autem  satis 
esset  ipsis  reUnquere.  Quam  rationem  maiorum 
etiam  comprobat  diUgentia,  qui  primum  iurare  '  ex 
sui  animi  sententia  '  quemque  voluerunt,  deinde  ita 
teneri  *  si  sciens  faUeret '  (quod  inscientia  multa 
versaretur  in  vita),  tum  qui  testimonium  diceret  ut 

«  See  §  22  note, 
65^ 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xlvii. 

fingers  closely  together  and  made  a  fist,  and  said 
that  that  was  comprehension  (and  from  this  illustra- 
tion  he  gave  to  that  process  the  actual  name  of 
catalepsis,  which  it  had  not  had  before)  ;  but  then  he 
used  to  apply  his  left  hand  to  his  right  fist  and 
squeeze  it  tightly  and  forcibly,  and  then  say  that 
such  was  knowledge,  which  was  within  the  power  of 
nobody  save  the  wise  man — but  w^ho  is  a  ^vise  man 
or  ever  has  been  even  they  themselves  do  not  usually 
say.  On  that  showing  you,  Catulus,  at  the  present 
moment,  do  not  kno7v  that  it  is  daytime,  nor  do  you, 
Hortensius,  knojv  that  we  are  at  your  country-house  ! 
146  Surely  these  are  not  less  unpopular  arguments  ? 
though  they  are  not  over-neatly  put — the  ones  before 
were  more  clearly  worked  out.  But  just  as  you  said  ** 
that  if  nothing  can  be  comprehended,  the  practice 
of  the  arts  and  crafts  collapses,  and  would  not  grant 
me  that  sufficient  vahdity  for  this  purpose  is  possessed 
by  probabihty,  so  now  I  retort  to  you  that  art 
cannot  exist  without  scientific  knowledge.  Would 
Zeuxis  or  Phidias  or  Polyclitus  endure  to  admit  that 
they  knew  nothing,  when  they  possessed  such  great 
skill  ?  But  if  somebody  explained  to  them  what 
power  is  said  to  be  possessed  by  knowledge,  they 
would  cease  to  be  angry  :  indeed  they  would  not  feel 
a  tinge  of  resentment  even  against  us  after  it  had 
been  explained  to  them  that  we  do  away  wdth  a  thing 
that  nowhere  exists  but  left  to  themselves  what  is 
sufficient  for  them.  This  theory  is  also  supported  by 
the  precaution  of  our  ancestors  in  requiring  every 
juror  to  swear  to  give  a  verdict  *  after  the  opinion  of 
his  own  mind,'  and  afterw^ards  to  be  held  guilty  of 
perjury  '  if  he  gave  a  false  verdict  wittingly  '  (because 
much  that  was  unwitting  occurred  in  Hfe),  and  then 

655 


CICERO 

*  arbitrari  '  se  diceret  etiam  quod  ipse  vidisset, 
quaeque  iurati  iudices  cognovissent  ea  non  ut  '  esse 
facta  '  sed  ut  '  videri  '  pronuntiarentur. 

147  XLVIII.  "  Verum  quoniam  non  solum  nauta 
significat  sed  etiam  Favonius  ipse  insusurrat  navi- 
gandi  nobis,  Luculle,  tempus  esse,  et  quoniam  satis 
multa  dixi,  est  mihi  perorandum.  Posthac  tamen 
cum  haec  quaeremus,  potius  de  dissensionibus  tantis 
summorum  virorum  disseramus,  de  obscuritate 
naturae  deque  errore  tot  philosophorimi  (qui  de 
bonis  contrariisque  rebus  tanto  opere  discrepant  ut, 
cum  plus  uno  verum  esse  non  possit,  iacere  necesse 
sit  tot  tam  nobiles  disciplinas),  quam  de  oculorum 
sensuumque  rehquorum  mendaciis  et  de  sorite  aut 
pseudomeno,  quas  plagas  ipsi  contra  se  Stoici  texue- 

148  runt."  Tum  LucuUus  :  "  Non  moleste,"  inquit, 
"  fero  nos  haec  contuhsse  ;  saepius  enim  congredi- 
entes  nos,  et  maxume  in  Tusculanis  nostris,  si  quae 
videbuntur  requiremus."  *'  Optume,"  inquam,  "  sed 
quid  Catulus  sentit  ?  quid  Hortensius  ?  "  Tum 
Catulus  :  "  Egone  ?  "  inquit  ;  "  ad  patris  revolvor 
sententiam,  quam  quidem  ille  Cameadeam  esse 
dicebat,  ut  percipi  nihil  putem  posse,  adsensurum 
autem  non  percepto,  id  est  opinaturum,  sapientem 
existumem,  sed  ita  ut  intellegat  se  opinari  sciatque^ 

^  sentiatque /"i^^id. 

«  This  foreshadows  De  Finibus,  and  possibly  the  preceding 
words  also  include  De  Xatura  Deorum,  which  was  certainly 
written  after  the  second  edition  of  Arademica  was  finished. 

»  See  §  49  note.  *  See  §  95. 

656 


ACADEMICA,  II.  (Lucullus),  xlvii.— xlviii. 

enacted  that  a  ^vitness  givin<T  evidence  should  say 
that  he  *  thought  '  even  something  that  he  had  him- 
self  seen,  and  that  the  jury  giving  their  verdict  on 
oath  should  declare  not  that  the  facts  which  they  had 
ascertained  *  had  occurred  '  but  that  they  '  appeared 
to  have.' 

147  XLVIII.  "  However,    Lucullus,   not   only   is   our  Conciusion 
sailor  signalhng   but  even  the  west   wind   itself  is 
whispering  that  it  is  time  for  us  to  be  cruising,  and 

also  I  have  said  enough  ;  so  I  ought  to  round  ofF. 
On  a  later  occasion  however  when  we  engage  in 
these  inquiries,  let  us  by  preference  discuss  the  wide 
differences  of  opinion  that  exist  among  the  men  of 
greatest  eminence,  the  obscurity  of  nature  and  the 
errors  of  all  these  philosophers  (who  disagree  so 
violently  about  things  good  and  their  opposites " 
that,  since  there  cannot  be  more  than  one  truth,  a 
large  number  of  these  famous  systems  must  of  neces- 
sity  collapse),  rather  than  the  subject  of  the  false- 
hoods  told  by  our  eyes  and  the  rest  of  our  senses,  and 
the  fallacies  of  '  the  heap  '  ^  and  '  the  har  '  '^ — traps 

148  that  the  Stoics  have  set  to  catch  themselves."  "  I 
am  not  sorry,"  rejoined  Lucullus,  "  that  we  have 
debated  these  subjects  ;  in  fact  we  will  meet  more 
frequently,  and  particularly  at  our  places  at  Tus- 
culum,  to  investigate  such  questions  as  we  think  fit." 
"  Excellent,"  said  I,  "  but  what  is  Catulus's  view  ? 
and  Hortensius's  ?  "  "  My  view  ?  "  rephed  Catulus  ; 
"  I  am  coming  round  to  the  view  of  my  father,  which 
indeed  he  used  to  say  was  that  of  Carneades,  and  am 
beginning  to  think  that  nothing  can  be  perceived, 
but  to  deem  that  the  wise  man  will  assent  to  some- 
thing  not  perceived,  that  is,  will  hold  an  opinion,  but 
with  the  quahfication  that  he  will  understand  that 

657 


CICERO 

nihil  esse  quod  comprehendi  et  percipi  possit ; 
quare  cTrox^ii'  iHam  omnium  rerum  comprobans^  illi 
alteri  sententiae,  nihil  esse  quod  percipi  possit, 
vehementer  adsentior."  "  Habeo,"  inquam,  "  sen- 
tentiam  tuam  nec  eam  admodum  aspernor  ;  sed  tibi 
quid  tandem  videtur,  Hortensi  ?  "  Tum  ille  ridens  : 
"  Tollendum  ! "  "  Teneo  te,"  inquam,  "  nam  ista  Aca- 
demiae  est  propria  sententia."  Ita  sermone  con- 
fecto  Catulus  remansit,  nos  ad  naviculas  nostras 
descendimus. 

^  non  probans  3Idv. :  improbans  Davies. 
"  Possibly  the  Latin  should  be  corrected  to  '  disagreeing/ 


658 


ACADEMICA.  11.  (LunTLLus),  xlviii. 

it  is  an  opinion  and  will  know  that  there  is  nothing 
that  can  be  comprehended  and  perceived  ;  and 
therefore  although  agreeing "  with  their  rule  of 
epoche  as  to  everything,^  I  assent  emphatically  to 
that  second  view,  that  nothing  exists  that  can  be 
perceived."  "  I  have  your  view,"  said  I,  "  and  I  do 
not  think  it  quite  neghgible  ;  but  pray,  Hortensius, 
what  do  you  think  ?  "  "  Away  ^^ith  it !  "  ^'  he  replied 
■with  a  laugh.  "  I  take  you,"  said  I,  "  for  that  is  the 
true  Academic  verdict."  The  conversation  thus  con- 
cluded,  Catulus  stayed  behind,  while  we  went  down 
to  our  boats. 

^  i.e.,  refusal  to  state  any  opinion,  whether  as  certain  or  as 
probable :  see  §  104,  and  for  the  term,  §  59. 

'  A  double  entente,  (1)  '  make  a  clean  sweep'  of  assent, 
and  (2)  '  weigh  anchor.' 


659 


INDEX  TO  ACADEMICA 


(flreek  words  in  italics) 


acataUpton,  ii.  18 

Accius  (see  p.  3S8),  L  10 

acervus,  ii.  147 

active  and  passive,  L  24 

adamare,  fr.  4 

adela,  ii.  54 

adiaphoria,  ii.  130 

Aelius  Stilo  (Roman    knight  and 

scholar),  i.  8 
aequor,  fr.  3 

Aeschines  (pupilof  Cameades),  ii.  16 
Aeschylus,  i.  10 
aestimatio,  i.  36 
Africanus,  see  Scipio 
Agnon  (v.l.  Aeschines),  ii.  16 
agnosticism,  i.  45,  iL  14 
Ajax  Furens,  ii.  89  n. 
alabaster,  fr.  11 
Albinus,   Postumius   (praetor    155 

B.C.),  iL  137 
Alcmaeo    (one    of    Seven    against 

Thebes,  slew  his  mother,  haunted 

by  Furies :  title-part  of  play  by 

Ennius),  iL  52,  88  f. 
Alexander  the  Great,  ii.  3,  85 
Alexinus   (Megarian    philosopher), 

ii.  76 
Amafinius      (Roman      Epicurean 

writer),  i.  5 
Anaxagoras  (see  p.  388),  i.  40,  ii. 

72,  100,  118,  123 
Anaximander  (see  p.  38S),  iL  118 
Anaximenes  (s^e  p.  388),  ii.ai^ 
Andromacha  (tragedy  of  Ennius), 

ii.  20 
Antiochus  (Academic,  of  Ascalon, 

d.   68  B.c),  L  7,  16-24,  29,  31  f., 

35 ;   ii.  16  f.,  20,  30,  37,  49,  123, 

126,  131  ff, 

660 


Antiopa  (tragedy  of  Pacuvius),  iL 

20 
Antipater  (Stoic,  of  Tarsus),  IL  28, 

109,  143 
antipodes,  ii.  123 
Antiquities,  Varro's,  L  8  f. 
antistrophos,  i.  32 
opotheia,  ii.  130 
Apollo,  i.  16 ;  ii.  89 
Apology  of  Socrates,  L  16  n. 
apora,  ii.  95 
Aicesilas  (see  p.  389),  i.  17,  35  ;  iL 

7,  15  f.,  21,  32 
Archidemus  (minor  Stoic),  ii.  143 
Archimedes  (see  p.  389),  ii.  llt. 
Ari.stippus  (see  p.  389),  ii.  131,  139 
Aristo  (see  p.  389),  ii.  123 
Aristo    the    Peripatetic    (head    of 

school  c.  225  B.C.),  iL  12 
Aristotle,  i.  17-25,  29-34,  38 ;  ii.  7, 

16  f.,  22,  47,  131 
Aristus    (of    Ascalon,    Academic, 

brother  of  Antiochus),  i.  12 ;  ii. 

12 
Asia  (Roman  province),  ii.  1  ff. 
assent,  i.  45  ;  ii.  37  ff.,  67  f. 
Athens,  i.  12  ;Ti.  69 
atoms,  i.  6 ;  ii.  125 
Atticus,  i,  2,  14,  18,  37 
axia,  i.  36 
axiomxi,  ii.  95 

Bauli  (between  Misonum  and  Baiae 

in  Campania),  ii.  9,  125 
Brutus  (slayer  of  Caesar),  i.  12 

Callipho  (pnpil  of  Epicurus),  ii.  131, 

139 
captions,  11.  45  t 


INDEX  TO  ACADEMICA 


Carneades  (see  p.  389),  i.  45  f.  ;  ii. 

16,  28,  32,  40,  t)7,  78,  87,  112,  131, 

137  f. 
Cassius,  L.  (consul  125  B.C.),  ii.  102 
catalepsis,  catalepton,  L  41  ;   ii.  14, 

145 
Cato,  Censorinus  (consul  95  b.c), 

ii.  5 
Charmadas    (Academic,    pupil    of 

Carneades),  ii.  16 
Chrysippus  (see  p.  390),  ii.  73,  75, 

93,  9G,  138,  140,  143 
Cimmerium,  ii.  61 
Clt-.inthes  (see  p.  390),  i.  32 ;  ii.  18, 

126 
Clitomachus  (pupil  of  Carneades), 

ii.  16,  76,  97,  102,  108,  139 
comprehension,  i.  41  f.  ;  ii.  16 
concinnare,  fr.  2 
corpora  =  afomoi,  ii.  121 
corpuscula,  i.  6 
Crantor  (Old  Academy,^.  .SOO  b.c.), 

i.  35  ;  ii.  135 
Crassus,  P.  (consul  131  b.c),  ii.  13 
Crates  (Old  Academy),  i.  35 
criterion,  ii.  142 
Cumae,  i.  1  ;  ii.  80 
Cynosure  (the  F.ittle  Bear),  ii.  66 
Cyreuaics,  ii.  20,  131,  142 

Dardanus  (minor  Stoic),  ii.  69 
Delos  (ravaged  by  army  of  Mithri- 

dates  80  B.c),  ii.  57,  86 
Democritus  (see  p.  390),  i.  6,  32,  44  ; 

ii.  14,  32,  55,  73,  118,  125 
diadocho'!,  i.  17 
dialectice,  i.  30  n.,  32 ;  ii.  91 
Diana,  iL  89 
digladiari,  fr.  12 
Dio  (Academic,  of  Aiexandria),  ii. 

12 
Diodorus  (Megarian),  ii.  76,  143 
Diodorus  (Syrian  Peripatetic),   ii. 

131 
Diodotus  (see  p.  390),  iL  115 
Diogenes  (of  Babylon,  see  p.  390), 

ii.  98,  137 
Dionysius  (pupil  of  Zeno),  iL  71 
dissection,  ii.  122 
dogmata,  ii.  27,  29 
dove"3  neck,  i.  19  ;  ii.  79 

earth,  motion  of,  ii.  123  ;  divine,  ii. 
119 


efflcient  causes,  i.  6 

eggs  alike,  ii.  54,  59,  86 

eide,  ii.  58  n. 

eiromia,,  ii,  15,  74 

ekkalyptein,  ii.  26 

Eleans.  ii.  120 

Empedocle.s  (see  p.  390),  L  44 ;  ii 

14,  74,  124 
enargeia,  iL  17 
End,  i.  22 
Ennius  (see  p.   390),  i.   10  ;  iL  20, 

51  f.,  88  f. 
ennoiai,  ii.  22,  30 
Epicharmus,  ii.  51 
Epicurus,  i.  5  f.,  13,  27  f.  ;  ii.  18, 

79,  82,  89,  97,  120,  140,  142 
epoche,  ii.  59 
Eretrians,  ii.  129 
Erillus  (Stoic,  pupil  of  Zeno),  IL 

129 
ethos,  ethos,  i.  20 
etymologia,  i.  32 
Euclides    (fonnder     of    Megarian 

school),  ii.  129 
Euripides,  i.  10 ;  ii.  89 
Eurystheus,  ii.  89 
Evander  (Academic),  iL  16 
exceptio,  ii.  97 
exponere,  fr.  5 
extremitas,  ii.  116 
exultare,  fr.  13 

Fannius,  C.  (consul  122  B.c),  ii.  16 

fifth-class,  ii.  73 

Flaininius,  C.  (see  p.  391),  iL  13 

formae,  ii.  58 

Fortuna,  i.  29 

Galba,    S.   Sulpicius   (praetor  187 

B.c),  ii.  51 
geometry,  i.  6:  ii.  23,  91,  116 
Gracchus,    Tiberius    (tribune    133 

B.c),  ii.  13 

Hagnon  (Academic,  pupil  of  Car- 

neades),  ii.  16 
hebes,  fr.  6 

Ilegesinus  (Academic),  ii.  16 
Helice  (the  Great  Bear),  ii.  66 
Herafilitus  of  Epliesus  (see  p.  391), 

ii.  118 
Heraclitus     Tyrius     (associate    of 

Antiochus),  ii.  11  f. 

661 


INDEX  TO  ACADEMICA 


Hercules,  ii.  108 

Hermarchus  (see  p.  391),  ii.  97 

Msychazein,  ii.  13 

Hicetas  (early  Pythagorean),  ii.  123 

fiieronymus(Rhodian,  Peripatetic), 

ii.  131 
Homer,  ii.  51,  88 
horme,  ii.  24,  30  n. 
Hortensius,    Q.    Hortalus   (consul 

69     B.c),    ii.    2,    9f.,     28,    148; 

(Cicero's  dialogue),  ii.  6  61 
hy'e,  i.  24 
Hyperides    (A.ttic    orator,   middle 

4ch  century  b.c),  i.  10 

idea,  i.  30,  33 

Iliona  (danghter  of  Priam,  wife 
of  Thracian  Polymnestor,  who 
murdered  Polydorus,  her  little 
brother  entrusted  toher  maternal 
care),  ii.  8S 

lndividua=afcOTioi,  ii.  55 

ingenerari,  fr.  14 

institutiam,  i.  44 

institutio,  ii.  102 

irony,  iL  i5,  74 

kdlon,  i.  23,  35 
katalepton,  i.  41  ;  ii.  17,  31 
koindnia  anthropine,  L  21 

Lacydes  (Academic),  ii.  16 
Latin,  use  of,  L  3ff.,  18 
Leucippus  (see  p.  392),  ii.  IIS 
Liar,  the,  ii.  95,  147 
Libo,  L.  Scribonius  (consul  34  b.c, 

father-in-law  of  Pompey),  i.  3 
libramentum  =  ?w)r?ia^j7i  (see  extre- 

mitas),  ii.  116 
light  of  reason,  ii.  26 
log'>ke,  i.  30n. 
LucuUus  (consul  74  b.c),  ii.  1  f.,  11 

etc. 
Lyceum  (gyinnasium  at  Athens), 

1.17 
Lvfurgus  (Spartan  law-giver),   ii. 

"136 
Lysippus  (of  Sicyon,  sculptor  temp. 

Alexander),  ii.  85 

Maeniana,  ii.  70 

M  inilius  (consul  149  B.c),  ii.  102 
3larins(seep.  392),  ii.  13 
marheuiatics,  ii.  82,  106,  116,  118 

m 


matter,  i.  24,  27 

Megarians,  ii.  129 

Melanihius    (Academic,    pupil    of 

Carnecj.des),  ii.  16 
Melissus  (of  Samo.s,  Eleatic,  pupil 

of  Parmenides),  ii.  118 
memoria  technica,  ii.  2 
Menedemus      (founded      Eretrian 

school,  later  3rd  century  B.c), 

i.  45 
Menippus  (Cynic  philosopher  and 

satirist  of  Gadara,   middle  2nd 

century  b.c),  1.  8 
meutiens,  ii.  95,  147 
-nLeros  poleos,  i.  21 
Metrodorus  of  Chios  (see  p.  393), 

ii.  73 
Metrodorus  of  Stratonicea  in  Caria 

(pupil  of  Carneaies),  ii.  16,  78 
Minervam,  sus,  i.  18 
Mithridatic  war,  ii.  1,  3  (see  n.) 
Muesarchus  (Stoic),  i.  46 ;  ii.  69 
inole,  ii.  81 
Monimus,  i.  8 
moThus^ pathos,  i.  38 
Murena,  C.  Licinius  (war  in  Pontus 

83  B.c),  ii.  2 
music,  ii.  20,  22,  91 
Myrmecides     ('  son     of    an    ant,* 

miniature  sculptor  of  Miletus  or 

Athens),  iL  120 

Naples,  ii.  9 

nature,    Stoic  standard  of  value, 

i.  36 
necessity,  ii.  29 
Neptuni  porticus,  ii.  80 
normae,  fr.  8 
Novae,  ii.  70 
numbers,  Pythagorean,  ii.  118 

oikeion,  ii.  38 
oracles,  ii.  47,  101 

Pacuvius  (see  p.  393),  i.  10  ;  ii.  20, 

88 
painters,  iL  20,  80,  146 
Panaetius  (see  p.  393),  ii.  5,   107, 

135 
I)aiadoxes,  Stoic,  ii.  132,  136,  144 
Parmenides  (see  p.  393),  L  44  ;  ii, 

74,  ILS,  129 
PeueIope'ii  web,  ii.  86 


INDEX  TO  ACADEMICA 


pfras,  ii.  llfin. 

Periiatetifs,  i.  6,  24  ;  ii.  112,  131 

perpendicula,  fr.  8 

perspicuousness,  ii.  17,  105 

phantasia,  i.  40;  ii.  18,  112 

Philo  of  Larissa  (see  p.  394),  L  13  ; 

ii.  11,  17,  18,  32,  78 
Philo    of   Mpfrara   (pupil    of    Dio- 

donis),  ii.  143 
Phoenicians,  ii.  66 
p'ivta,  i.  26  n. 
Plato,  1.  15fif.,  24,  29  ff.,  38,  44;  ii. 

7,  17,  22,  118,  121,  124 
point,  detinition  of,  ii.  116 
foiotltes,  i.  24  f. 
Polemo  (Academic),   i.  17,  19,  37; 

ii.  16,  131,  132,  139 
Polyaenus  (friend  of  Epicurus),  ii. 

106 
Pompei,  ii.  80 
Pompeianum,  ii.  9,  80 
Porapeius,  Q.  (consul  141'B.c.),  ii.  13 
Pontus(N.E.  districtofAsiaMinor), 

ii.  2 
pori;icus  Neptuni,  ii.  80 ;  Stoicorum, 

ii.  75 
Posidonius  (see  p.  394),  ii.  82 
preferred  and  rejected,  i.  37 
probability,  fr,  19;  ii.  32  f.,  104  f. 
prokope,  i.  20  n. 
prolepseis,  ii.  30 
pronoia,  i.  V9;  ii.  87 
Protagoras  (see  p.  394),  ii.  142 
providence,  i.  29 ;  ii.  87 
purpurascere,  fr.  7 
Puteoli  (Pozzuoli,  Campanian  sea- 

port),  ii.  80,  100,  125 
Pyrrho(of  Elis,  Sceptic),  ii.  130 
Pythagoreans  (see  p.  394),  ii.  118 

quality,  i.  24 
quinta  natura,  i  39 

Rabirius  (Roman  Epicurean  writer). 

i.  5 
refraction,  fr.  3 ;  ii.  19,  79,  82 
Republic  of  Plato,  ii.  124 
research,  ii.  26 

Satuminus,  L.  Apuleius  (tribum^ 

103  and  100  b.c),  i.  14;  ii.  7 
Scaevola  (consul  133  b.c),  ii.  13 
Sceptics,  i.  45  ;  ii.  17,  28,  40,  43,  72, 
76,  81,  104,  108,  110,  120,  125,  127 


Scipio,    P.    Cornelius     Aemilianns 

Afric-anus   (c.nsul    147  and    134 

B.c),  ii.  5,  13,  15 
Scipio,  P.  Coinelius  Nasica  (consul 

155  B.c),  ii.  137 
Scyllaeum  bonum,  ii.  139 
Sellii,  P.  et  S.  (unknown),  ii.  11 
seriwia,  i.  32 
Septentriones,  ii.  66 
SerAilii  (Publius,   consul  252  and 

248  B.c),  ii.  56,  84  f. 
Servius  Tullius,  ii.  73  n. 
Seven  Wise  Men,,  ii.  118 
siccum,  fr.  9 
Siro  (Epicurean,  teacher  of  Virgil), 

ii.  106 
Socrates,  i.  15  ff.,  21,  39,  44;  ii.  14, 

65,  74,  136,  145 
Socratici,  ii.  74 
Solon,  ii.  136 
sophisviata,  ii.  45  n.,  75 
Sophists,  ii.  72 
Sophocles,  i.  10 
sontl'^,  ii.  49,  92  ff.,  107,  147 
Sosus,  ii.  12 

species =i(/eai,  i.  33;  ii.  58,  112 
Speusippus  (see  p.  395),  i.  17,  34 
Star.s,  ii.  32,  110,  119,  123 
Stilbo    (2TC\n(Dv,    Megarian    philo» 

sopher,  3rd  century  b.c),  ii.  75 
Strato  (see  p.  395),  i.  34 ;  ii.  121 
Stratonicea.     See  Metrodoms 
sun  divine,  ii.  116,  119,  126  ;  sizc  of, 

82,  91,  118,  123,  126,  128 ;  motion 

of,  82 
sus  Minervam,  i.  18 
syacatathesis,  ii.  37 
Syria,  ii.  61 
systema,  ii.  102 

teleiosis,  i.  20 

terminoiogy,  i.  5,  25 

Tetriiius  Rogus  (unknown),  ii.  11 

Thales  (of  Miletus,  earliest  Greek 

philosopher,    636-546    B.C.),    ii. 

118 
themelia,  ii.  40  n. 
Themistocles(Athenian  statesman, 

b.  514  B.C.,  viclor  of  Salamis), 

ii.  2 
Theophanes  (of  M  itylene,  counsellor 

and  histortan  of  Ponijiey),  ii.  4 
Theophrastus  (see  p.  395),  i.  10,  33, 

35;  u.  113,  123  134 

663 


INDEX  TO  ACADEMICA 


Timaeus,  ii.  123 

Timagoras  (i'nknown),  ii.  80 

Timon,  i.  44  f. 

tribunes,  ii.  63,  97,  144 

Tubero  (consul  118  b.c.),  il  135 

Tuditan  as  (mentioned  also  Philippic 

III.  16  as  insaije),  ii.  89 
Tullia,  i.  11  n. 

Tusculan  Disputations,  ii.  135n. 
Tusculum  (on  Monte  Albano,  near 

Frascati,  10  m.  S.E.  of  Eome),  ii. 

148 
Twelve  Tables,  ii.  136 
twins,  ii.  54 

Ulysses  (in  Ajax  Furens,   author 

unknown),  iL  89 
urinari,  fr.  10 

Varro,  L  passim,  tr.  22 


vindicare,  fr.  15 
vipers,  ii.  120 

world-soul,  i.  29;  ii.  118  f.,  126 


Xenocrates  (see  p.  396),  i.  17,  34,  39; 

iu  113,  124,  136  f.,  143 
Xenophanes  (see  p.  396),  ii.  74,  IIS, 

123,  129 


Zeno  of  Citium  (see  p.  396),  1.  7, 18, 

35,  42,  44  ;  iL  16,  66,  71,  76  f.,  113, 

126,  129  fr. 
Zeno  of  Elia  (see  p.  396),  ii.  129 
Zeno    of    Sidon  (Epicurean,    con- 

temporary  of  Cicero),  L  4rt 
Zeuxis  (Greek  painter,  late  5th  cent. 

B.C.),  ii.  146 


fri,nud  in  Great  Hritain  6y  K.  &  H.  Clabk,  Limited,  Edinbitrgh 


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CicEHO :  De  Natuha  Deohum  and  Academica.  H.  Rackham. 
CiCERO  :   De  Officiis.     Walter  Miller. 
CiCERO  :  De  Oratohe,  etc.    2  Vols.     Vol.  I :   De  Oratore, 

Books  I  and  II.    E.  W.  Sutton  and  H.  Rackham.    Vol.  1 1 : 

De  Oratore,   Book   III ;     De  Fato  ;    Pahadoxa    Stoi- 

corum;  De  Pabtitione  Ohatohia.     H.  Rackham. 


THE  LOEB  CLASSICAL  LIBRARY 

CicEBO  :    De  Republica,  De  Legibus,  Somnium  Scipionis. 

Clinton  W.  Keyes. 
CicEBo  :    De  Senectute,  De  Amicitia,   De  Divinatione. 

W.  A.  Falconer. 
CiCEBO  :     In   Catilinam,   Pbo   Mubena,   Pbo  Sulla,   Pbo 

Flacco.    Louis  E.  Lord. 
CicEBO  :   Lettebs  to  Atticus.    E.  O.  Winstedt.    3  Vols. 
CiCEBo  :    Lettebs  to  his  Fbiends.     W.  Glynn  WUliams. 

3Vols. 
CicEBO  :    Philippics.    W.  C.  A.  Ker. 
CiCEBO  :    Pbo  Abchia,  Post  Reditum,  De  Domo,  De  Ha- 

BUSpicuM  Responsis,  Pbo  Plancio.    N.  H.  Watts. 
CiCEBO  :    Pbo  Caecina,  Pbo  Lege  Manilia,  Pbo  Cluentio, 

Pbo  Rabibio.    H.  Grose  Hodge. 
CicEBO  :    Pbo  Caelio,  De  Pbovtnciis  Consulabibus,  Pbo 

Balbo.    R.  Gardner. 
CicEBO :     Pbo    Milone,    In    Pisonem,    Pbo    Scaubo,    Pbo 

Fonteio,   Pbo  Rabibio  Postumo,  Pbo   Mabcello,   Pbo 

LiGABio,  Pbo  Rege  Deiotabo.    N.  H.  Watts. 
CicEBO  :    Pbo  Quinctio,  Pbo  Roscio  Amebino,  Pbo  Roscio 

CoMOEDO,  CoNTBA  RuLLUM.    J.  H.  Freesc. 
CicEBO  :   Pbo  Sestio,  In  Vatinium.    R.  Gardner. 
[CiCEBo] :    Rhetobica  ad  Hebennium.    H.  Caplan. 

ClCEBO  :    TUSCULAN  DlSPUTATIONS.     J.  E.  King. 

CicEBo  :  Vebbine  Obations.    L.  H.  G.  Greenwood.    2  Vols. 

Claudian.     M.  Platnauer.    2  Vols. 

CoLUMELLA  :    De  Re  Rustica,  De  Abbobibus.     H.  B.  Ash, 

E.  S.  Forster,  E.  Heffner.    3  Vols. 
CuBTius,   Q. :    HiSTOBY   OF  Alexandeb.     J.  C.  Rolfe.     2 

Vols. 
Flobus.    E.  S.  Forster  ;  and  Cobnelius  Nepos.    J.  C.  Rolfe. 
Fbontinus  :    Stbatagems  and  Aqueducts.     C.  E.  Bennett 

and  M.  B.  McElwain. 
Fbonto  :  CoBBESPONDENCE.    C.  R.  Haines.    2  Vols. 
Gellius.    J.  C.  Rolfe.    3  Vols. 
HoBACE  :   Odes  and  Epodes.    C.  E.  Bennett 
HoBACE :  Satibes,  Epistles,  Abs  Poetica.  H.  R.  Fairclough. 
Jebome  :    Select  Lettebs.    F.  A.  Wright. 
JuvENAL  AND  Pebsius.    G.  G.  Ramsav- 
LivY.     B.  O.  Foster,  F.  G.   Moore,  Evan  T.  Sage,  A.  C 

Schlesinger  and  R.  M.  Geer  (General  Index).     U  Vols. 
LucAN.    J.  D.  Duff. 


THE  LOEB  CLASSICAL  LIBRARY 

LucHETius.    W.  H.  D.  Rouse. 

Martial.    W.  C.  A.  Ker.    2  Vols. 

MixoH  Latin  Poets  :    from  Publilius  Syrus  to  Rutilius 

Namatianus,   including  Grattius,  Calpurvius   Siculus, 

Nemesiakus,   Avian-us,   with   "  Aetna,"   "  Phoenix  "  and 

other  poems.     J.  Wight  Duff  and  Arnold  M.  Duff. 
OviD  :   The  Aht  of  Love  and  otheh  Poems.    J.  H.  Mozley. 
OviD  :    Fasti.    Sir  James  G.  Frazer. 
OviD :  Hehoides  akd  Amohes.     Grant  Showermao. 
OviD  :    Metamohphoses.    F.  J.  Miller.    2  Vois. 
OviD  :   Thistia  akd  Ex  Ponto.    A.  L.  Wheeler. 
Pethonius.      M.    Heseltine ;     Seneca  :     Apocolocyntosis. 

W.  H.  D.  Rouse. 
Phaedhus  axd  Babrius  (Greek).    B.  E.  Perry. 
Plautus.     Paul  Nixon.    5  Vols. 
Pliny  :      Lettehs.        Melmoth's     translation     revised     by 

W.  M.  L.  Hutchinson.    2  Vols. 
Pliny  :    Natuhal  Histohy.     10  Vols.     Vols.  I-V  and  IX. 

H.  Rackham.     Vols.  VI-VIII.     W.  H.  S.  Jones.     Vol.  X. 

D.  E.  Eichholz. 
Phopertius.    H.  E.  Butler. 
Phudentius.     H.  J.  Thomson.    2  Vols. 
QuiNTiLiAN.    H.  E.  Butler.    4  Vols. 
Remains   of   Old    Latin.      E.    H.    Warmington.      4   Vols. 

Vol.  I  (Ennius  and  Caecilius).     Vol.  II  (Livius,  Naevius, 

Pacuvius,  Accius).     Vol.  III  (Lucilius,  Laws  of  the  XII 

Tables).    Vol.  IV  (Archaic  Inscriptions). 
Sallust.    J.  C.  Rolfe. 

Schiptohes  Histohiae  Augustae.    D.  Magie.    3  Vols. 
Seneca  :    Apocolocyntosis.     C/.  Pethonius. 
Seneca  :   Epistulae  Mohales.    R.  M.  Gummere.    3  Vols. 
Seneca  :    Mohal  Essays.    J.  W.  Basore.    3  Vols. 
Seneca  :   Tragedies.    F.  J.  Miller.    2  Vols. 
SiDONius  :    PoEMs  AND  Lettebs.     W.  B.  Andersou.    2  Vols. 
SiLius  Italicus.    J.  D.  DuflF.    2  Vols. 
Statius.    J.  H.  Mozley.    2  Vols. 
Suetonius.    J.  C.  Rolfe.    2  Vols. 
Tacitus  :    DiALOGUS.     Sir  Wm.   Peterson ;    and  Agricola 

AND  Gehmania.    Maurice  Hutton. 
Tacitus  :    HisTOBiES  AND  Annals.     C.  H.   Moore  and  J. 

Jackson.    4  Vols. 
Tebknce.    John  Sargeaunt.    2  VoJs, 


THE  LOEB  CLASSICAL  LIBRARY 

Tertullian  :  Apologia  and  De  Spectaculis.    T.  R.  Glover ; 

MiNucius  Felix.    G.  H.  Rendall. 
Valehius  Flaccus.    J.  H.  Mozley. 
Vahro  :   De  Lingua  Latina.    R.  G.  Kent.    2  Vols. 
Velleius    Paterculus    and    Res    Gestae    Divi    Augusti. 

F.  W.  Shipley. 
ViHGiL.    H.  R.  Fairclough.    2  Vols. 
ViTHUvius  :  De  Ahchitectuha.    F.  Granger.    2  Vols. 

GREEK  AUTHORS 


AcHiLLES  Tatius.    S.  Gaselce. 

Aelian  :    On  the  Natuhe  op  Animals.     A.  F.  Scholfield. 

3  Vols. 
Aeneas  Tacticus,   Asclepiodotus  and   Onasandeb.     The 

lUinois  Greek  Club. 
Aeschines.    C.  D.  Adams. 
Aeschylus.    H.  Weir  Smyth.    2  Vols. 
Alciphron,  Aelian  and  Philostratus  :    Letters.     A.  R. 

Benner  and  F.  H.  Fobes. 
Apollodorus.    Sir  James  G.  Frazer.    2  Vols. 
Apollonius  Rhodius.    R.  C.  Seaton. 
The  Apostolic  Fathers.    Kirsopp  Lake.    2  Vols. 
Appian's  Roman  History.    Horace  White.    4  Vols. 
Aratus.     C/.  Callimachus. 
Aristophanes.     Benjamin  Bickley  Rogers.    3  Vols.    Verse 

trans. 
Aristotle  :   Art  op  Rhetoric.    J.  H.  Freese. 
Aristotle  :     Athenian   Constitution,   Eudemian   Ethics, 

ViRTUES  AND  VicEs.    H.  Rackham. 
Aristotle  :  The  Categories.    On  Interpretation.    H.  P. 

Cooke  ;    Prior  Analytics.    H.  Tredennick. 
Aristotle  :   Generation  of  Animals.    A.  L.  Peck. 
Aristotle:  Historia  Animalium.  A.  L.  Peck.  3  Vols.  Vol.  I. 
Ahistotle  :   Metaphysics.    H.  Tredennick.    2  Vols. 
Aristotle  :    Meteorologica.    H.  D.  P.  Lee. 
Ahistotle  :    Minor  Works.     W.  S.  Hett     "  On  Colours," 

"  On  Things  Heard,"  "  Physiognomics,"  "  On  Plants," 

"  On  Marvellous  Things  Heard,"  "  Mechanical  Problems," 

"  On    Indivisible    Lines,"    "  Situations    and    Names    of 

Winds,"  "  On  Melissus,  Xenophanes,  and  Gorgias." 


THE  LOEB  CLASSICAL  LIBRARY 

Ahistotle  :   NicoMACirEAy  Ethics.    H.  Rackham. 
Ahistotle  :     Oeconomica   axd    Magka    Moralia.      G.   C. 

Armstrong.    (With  Metaphysics,  Vol.  II.) 
Aristotle  :   Ox  THE  Heavexs.    W.  K.  C.  Guthrie. 
Ahistotle  :   Oy  the  Soul,  Parva  Naturalia,  On  Breath. 

W.  S.  Hett. 
Abistotle  :   Parts  of  Aximals.    A.  L.  Peck  ;    Motiov  and 

Progressiov  of  Aximals.    E.  S.  Forster. 
Aristotle  :    Physics.     Rev.  P.  Wicksteed  and  F.  M.  Corn- 

ford.    2  Vols. 
Aristotle  :     PoETics ;     Lokglnus    oy    the    SuBLniE.      W. 

Hamilton  Fyfe ;  Demetrius  ox  Sttle.    W.  Rhys  Roberts. 
Ahistotle  :    PoLiTics.     H.  Rackham. 
Aristotle:  Posterior  .\xalytic3.    H.  Tredennick;  Topics. 

E.  S.  Forster. 
Aristotle  :   Problems.    W.  S.  Hett.    2  Vols. 
Ahistotle  :    Rhetorica  ad  Alexaxdrum.     H.  Rackham. 

(With  Problems,  Vol.  II.) 

AhISTOTLE  :    SoPHISTICAL    ReFUTATIOXS.      CoMrS-G-TO-BE  AXD 

Passixg-away.    E.  S.  Forster;  Ox  the  Cosmos.    D.  J.  Fur- 

ley. 
ARRiAy  :    HisTORY  OF  Alexaxder  akd  Ikdica.     Rev.  E. 

Iliffe  Robson.    2  Vols. 
Athexaeus  :  Deipkosophistae.    C.  B.  Gulick.    7  Vols. 
Babrius  akd  Phaedrus  (Latin).    B.  E.  Perry. 
St.  Basil  :    Letters.     R.  J.  Deferrari.    4  Vols. 
Calli3Iachus  :    Fragmekts.    C.  A.  Trypanis. 
Callimachus  :     HYiiKS    AKD    Epigrams,    akd    Lycophhon. 

A.  W.  Mair  ;    Aratus.    G.  R.  Mair. 
Clemekt  of  Alexakdria.    Rev.  G.  W.  Butterworth. 

COLLUTHUS.       C/.   OpPIAK. 

Daphkis  akd  Chloe.     C/.  Lokgus. 

Demosthexes     I  :      Olyxthiacs,     Philippics     akd     MrsoR 

Oratioks  :    I-XVII  AKD  XX.    J.  H.  Vince. 
Demosthekes  II  :    De  Coroka  akd  De  Falsa  Legatiojte. 

C.  A.  Vince  and  J.  H.  Vince. 
Demosthekes    III:      Meidias,    Akdrotiok,    Aristocrates, 

TiMOCRATES,  Aristogeitok.    J.  H.  Vincc. 
Demosthekes  IV-VI  :    Private  Oratioks  akd  Ik  Neaeham. 

A.  T.  Murray. 
Demosthekes     VII :      FmrEHAL    Speech,     Erotic    Essay, 

ExoRDiA  akd  Lettehs.    N.  W.  and  N.  J.  DeWitt 


THE  LOEB  CLASSICAL  LIBRARY 

Dio  Cassius  :   Roman  Histoht.     E.  Cary.    9  Vols. 

Dio  Chrysostom.    5  Vols.    Vols.  I  andll.    J.  W.  Cohoon. 

Vol.  III.    J.  W.  Cohoon  and  H.  Lamar  Crosby.    Vols.  IV 

and  V.    H.  Lamar  Crosby. 
DioDORUs  SicuLus.    12  Vols.    Vols.  I-VI.    C.  H.  Oldfather. 

Vol.VII.   C.  LSherman.   Vol.  VIII.  C.  B.  Welles.   Vols. 

IX  and  X.    Russel  M.  Geer.    Vol.  XI.    F.  R.  Walton. 
DioGENES  Laertius.    R.  D.  Hicks.    2  Vols. 
DioNYSius  OF  Halicarnassus  :    RoMAN  Antiquities.     Spel- 

man's  translation  revised  by  E.  Cary.    7  Vols. 
Epictetus.    W.  A.  Oldfather.    2  Vols. 
EuRiPiDES.    A.  S.  Way.    4  Vols.    Verse  trans. 
EusEBius  :    EccLEsiASTiCAL  HisTORY.      Kirsopp   Lake  and 

J.  E.  L.  Oulton.    2  Vols. 
Galen  :   On  the  Natuhal  Faculties.    A.  J.  Brock. 
The  Gheek  Anthology.    W.  R.  Paton.    5  Vols. 
The  Greek  Bucolic  Poets  (Theocritus,  Bion,  Moschus). 

J.  M.  Edmonds. 
Gheek  Elegy  and  Iambus  with  the  Anacheontea.    J.  M. 

Edmonds.    2  Vols. 
Gheek  Mathematical  Works.    Ivor  Thomas.    2  Vols. 
Herodes.     C/.  Theophrastus  :   Characters. 
Herodotus.    A.  D.  Godley.    4  Vols. 
Hesiod  and  the  Homeric  Hymns.    H.  G.  Evelyn  White. 

HlPPOCRATES  AND  THE  FrAGMENTS  OF  HeHACLEITUS.    W.  H.  S. 

Jones  and  E.  T.  Withington.    4  Vols. 
HoMEH  :    Iliad.    A.  T.  Murray.    2  Vols. 
HoMEH  :   Odyssey.    A.  T.  Murray.    2  Vols. 
IsAEUS.    E.  S.  Forster. 

IsocRATEs.    Georg-e  NorHn  and  LaRue  Van  Hook.    3  VoLs. 
St.  John  Damascene  :   Bahlaam  and  Ioasaph.    Rev.  G.  R. 

Woodward  and  Harold  Mattingly. 
JosEPHUS.    9  Vols.     Vols.  I-IV.    H.  St.  J.  Thackeray.    Vol. 

V.     H.  St.  J.  Thackeray  and  Ralph  Marcus.      Vols.  VI 

andVII.    Ralph  Marcus.    Vol.  VHI.    Ralph  Marcus  and 

Allen  Wikgren.    Vol.  IX.    L.  H.  Feldman. 
JuLiAN.    Wilmer  Cave  Wright.    3  Vols. 
LoNGUS  :    Daphnis  and  Chloe.     Thornley's  translation  re- 

vised  by  J.  M.  Edmonds  ;    and  Pahthenius.     S.  Gase- 

lee. 
LuciAN.    8  Vols.    Vols.  I-V.    A.  M.  Harmon.    Vol.  VI.    K. 

Kilburn.     VoL  VII.     M.  D.  Macleod. 

6 


THE  LOEB  CLASSICAL  LIBRARY 

Lycophrox.     C/.  Callimachus. 

Lyha  Ghaeca,    J.  NL  Edraonds.    3  Vols. 

Lyslas.     \V.  R.  xNL  Lamb. 

xMaxetho,    W.G.  Waddell;  Ptolemy:  Tetrabiblos.    F.  E. 

Robbins. 
Marcus  Aubelius.    C.  R.  Haines. 
Menander.    F.  G.  Allinson. 
MixoH  Attic  Ohatohs.     2   Vols.      K.  J.    Maidment   and 

J.  O.  Burtt 
NoKNos  :  DioxYsiACA.    W.  H.  D.  Rouse.    3  Vols. 
Oppian,  Colluthus,  Thyphiodohus.    A.  W.  Mair. 
Papyri.    Nok-Litehahy  Selections.    A.  S.  Hunt  and  C.  C. 

Edgar.     2  Vols.     Literaby  Selections  (Poetry).     D.  L. 

Page. 
Parthenius.     C/.  Loxgus. 
Pausakias  :    Deschiptiok  of  Gheece.     W.  H.  S.  Jones.     5 

Vols.  and  Companion  Vol.  arranged  bv  R.  E.  Wvcherley. 
Philo.     10  Vols.    Vols.  I-V.    F.  H.  Colson  and  Rev.  G.  H. 

Whitaker.     Vols.  VI-X.     F.  H.  Colson.     General  Index. 

Rev.  J.  W.  Earp. 

Two   Supplementary   Vols.      Translation   only   from   an 
Armenian  Text.    Ralph  Marcus. 
Philosthatus  :   The  Life  of  Apollokius  of  Tyana.     F.  C 

Conybeare.    2  Vols. 
Philosthatus  :     Islagdtes  ;    Callisthatus  :    Deschiptious, 

A,  Fairbanks. 
Philostratus    and    EuNAPnjs  :     Lives    of    the    Sophists, 

Wilmer  Cave  Wright 
PiKDAH.    Sir  J.  E.  Sandys. 
Plato  :  Charmides,  Alcibiades,  Hipparchus,  The  Lovers, 

Theages,  Mikos  akd  Epikomis.    W,  R.  M.  Lamb. 
Plato  :   Chatylus,  Pahmekides,  Gheateb  Hippias,  Lesseh 

HippiAs.    H.  N.  Fowler. 
Plato  :   EuTHYPHHO,  Apology,  Chito,  Phaedo,  Phaedbus. 

H.  N.  Fowler. 
Plato  :       Laches,      Photagohas,      Meko,      Euthydemus. 

W.  R.  M.  Lamb. 
Plato  :   Laws.    Rev.  R.  G.  Bury.    2  Vols. 
Plato  :    Lysis,  Symposium,  Gohgias.     W.  R.  M.  Lamb. 
Plato  :    Republic.     Paul  Shorey.    2  Vols. 
Plato  :     Statesman,    Philebus.      H,    N.    Fowler ;     lo». 
W.  R.  ^L  Lamb. 


THE  LOEB  CLASSICAL  LIBRARY 

Plato  :   Theaetetus  and  Sophist.    H.  N.  Fowler. 

Plato  :    Timaeus,    Cbitias,    Clitopho,    Mekexenus,    Epi- 

stulae.    Rev.  R.  G.  Bury. 
Plotinus.     A.  H.  Armstrong     ^  Vols.     Vols    I-II 

Plutabch:  MoRALiA.  15  Vols.  Vols.  I-V  F.  C.  Babbitt. 
Vol.VI.  W.  C.  Helmbold.  Vol.  VII.  P.  H.  De  Lacy  and 
B.Einarson.  Vol.  IX.  E.  L.  Minar^  Jr  F.  H  Sandbach, 
W.  C.  Helmbold.  Vol.  X.  H  N.  Fowler  Vol.  XI.  L. 
Pearson,  F.  H.  Sandbach.  Vol.  XII.  H.  Chermss,  W.  C. 
Helmbold.     Vol.  XIV.     P.  H.  De  Lacy  and  B.  Einarson. 

Plutabch  '.   The  Parallel  Lives.    B.  Perrin.    11  Vols. 

PoLYBius.    W.  R.  Paton.    6  Vols.       „  „  ^      .         . .,  , 

Pbocopius  :  Histobt  of  the  Wabs.    H.  B.  Dewing.    7  Vols. 

Ptolemy  :   Tetbabiblos.     Cf.  Manetho. 

QuiNTUS  Smtbnaeus.    A.  S.  Way.    Verse  ^ans. 

Sextus  Empibicus.    Rev.  R.  G.  Bury.    4  Vols. 

SOPHOCLES.    F.  Storr.    2  Vols.    Verse  trans. 

Stbabo  :  Geogbapht.    Horace  L.  Jones.    8  Vols. 

Theophbastus  :    Chabactebs.    J.  M.  Edmonds  ;   Hebodes 

THE^^-pH^s^us?  EiauiBT  iNTO  Plakt..     Sir  Arthur  Hort 

2  Vols.  __  , 

Thuctdides.    C.  F.  Smith.    4  Vols. 
Tbtphiodobus.    C/.  Oppian. 
Xenophon  :   Ctbopaedia.    Walter  Miller.    2  Vols. 

Xenophon:    Hellenica,  Ak^-^^ Vodd^^lvob^ 

siuM.    C.  L.  BrownsonandO.  J.  Todd.    3  Vols. 
Xenopho'n:    Memobabilia  and  Oeconomicus.     E.  C.  Mar 

X^OP^^HON  :  ScHiPTA  Mikoha.    E.  C  Marchant. 

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